Honoring Magpie
I'm pretty busy recently. Besides home projects, I attended the Washita Battlefield 2002 Symposium Friday, Saturday and Sunday, November 15-17, in Cheyenne, Oklahoma, 90 miles to the west. I'll write more about it.
An emotional part was a special ceremony at the nearby National Monument for grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Magpie - a Cheyenne Indian who as a youth was present at the Battle of the Washita. Troops under General George Armstrong Custer attacked the Cheyenne camp beside the Washita River. It was early morning, in a blinding snowstorm, on November 27, 1868. Much oral history, considered honest and accurate, etc., was given by Magpie in his older years.
Beside the many pleasant family memories expressed, two elderly men spoke well of Magpie as a caring and friendly "grandfatherly" figure in their lives. Each lived on farms near Magpie's farm in their youth. I was born in 1939 close to the time Magpie died in the mid-1930's. Amazing! My life and Magpie's life nearly overlap.
November 14, 2002
Top Secret
I've used once "Top Secret" U.S. Navy equipment the past two days! This started when I decided to put wood paneling on my basement walls and obtained a Remington® Powerhammer to nail furring strips to the masonry - then finish by nailing paneling to the furring strips. The Powerhammer uses a 22 caliber load fired by hitting a firing pin with a hammer.
So what is "Top Secret"?
Well, I find that Powerhammers were developed during World War II for frogmen to do underwater repairs of battle damage to the hulls of warships. Wartime Powerhammers were bigger and used a larger caliber charge. Steel panels to cover holes in the ship hull were cut. The frogmen positioned the steel panel and nailed it to the ship's hull with a Powerhammer. The repair job was finished by applying a sealing compound around the steel plate "patch." The source of this information is the father of local plumber Dave Dresser. Dave's dad was a wartime frogman and was only allowed to tell about using the Powerhammer after the war ended, at which time the "Top Secret" clearance was lifted.
Putting two and two together, I expect Powerhammers were kept "Top Secret" during the war to keep the enemy in the dark about U.S. Navy capability to make repairs of major hull damage at sea, and about the ensuing ability for quick return to combat.
For me, this nicely demonstrates how the winning edge in naval warfare, and in all warfare, is not always having the biggest guns, the latest in "smart missiles", and so on. Winning wars is dependent also on the ingenuity of people who develop tools such as the Powerhammer, who develop the techniques for using the tools - and is also dependent on the skill and bravery of the men who use tools in trying conditions such as repairing a ship hull underwater. I salute the frogmen who did this work during World War II.
I've used once "Top Secret" U.S. Navy equipment the past two days! This started when I decided to put wood paneling on my basement walls and obtained a Remington® Powerhammer to nail furring strips to the masonry - then finish by nailing paneling to the furring strips. The Powerhammer uses a 22 caliber load fired by hitting a firing pin with a hammer.
So what is "Top Secret"?
Well, I find that Powerhammers were developed during World War II for frogmen to do underwater repairs of battle damage to the hulls of warships. Wartime Powerhammers were bigger and used a larger caliber charge. Steel panels to cover holes in the ship hull were cut. The frogmen positioned the steel panel and nailed it to the ship's hull with a Powerhammer. The repair job was finished by applying a sealing compound around the steel plate "patch." The source of this information is the father of local plumber Dave Dresser. Dave's dad was a wartime frogman and was only allowed to tell about using the Powerhammer after the war ended, at which time the "Top Secret" clearance was lifted.
Putting two and two together, I expect Powerhammers were kept "Top Secret" during the war to keep the enemy in the dark about U.S. Navy capability to make repairs of major hull damage at sea, and about the ensuing ability for quick return to combat.
For me, this nicely demonstrates how the winning edge in naval warfare, and in all warfare, is not always having the biggest guns, the latest in "smart missiles", and so on. Winning wars is dependent also on the ingenuity of people who develop tools such as the Powerhammer, who develop the techniques for using the tools - and is also dependent on the skill and bravery of the men who use tools in trying conditions such as repairing a ship hull underwater. I salute the frogmen who did this work during World War II.
November 13, 2002
Call me Ahab
I have a keen interest in Melville's Moby Dick and besides reading the book itself, I've read many articles about the book.
Every time I read something new, it adds new angles for understanding the subtle messages of Moby Dick. Now I've found the "mother of all Moby Dick articles" for me. It is a book review on Moby-Dick entitled Call me Ahab (covering four books) by Jeremy Harding in the London Review of Books Vol. 24 No. 21 - 31, October 2002.
For me, it is an article that cannot be put down - and not only that, I've read the article three times and I'll probably read it several more times. I made a copy for my files. It is long. An especially captivating part is its tying in the Ahab and Ishmael characters, and events in the novel, as parallels to the events of 9/11/2001 and their aftermath, including parallels to the main players in each case.
Books reviewed:
-------------------------------------------
Moby-Dick, or, The Whale by Herman Melville ed. Harrison Hayford and Hershel Parker
Mariners, Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live in by C.L.R. James
Hunting Captain Ahab: Psychological Warfare and the Melville Revival by Clare Spark
Lucchesi and the Whale by Frank Lentricchia
-------------------------------------------
"The American whaleman was a kind of prospector, the ancestor of the oilman, while the New England whaling industry itself . . . was killed off by the refining of kerosene from fossil fuel. Ishmael is an active participant in the process of extraction for profit, turning the wheels of production at home while extending the frontier abroad. " [ read more . . . ]
I have a keen interest in Melville's Moby Dick and besides reading the book itself, I've read many articles about the book.
Every time I read something new, it adds new angles for understanding the subtle messages of Moby Dick. Now I've found the "mother of all Moby Dick articles" for me. It is a book review on Moby-Dick entitled Call me Ahab (covering four books) by Jeremy Harding in the London Review of Books Vol. 24 No. 21 - 31, October 2002.
For me, it is an article that cannot be put down - and not only that, I've read the article three times and I'll probably read it several more times. I made a copy for my files. It is long. An especially captivating part is its tying in the Ahab and Ishmael characters, and events in the novel, as parallels to the events of 9/11/2001 and their aftermath, including parallels to the main players in each case.
Books reviewed:
-------------------------------------------
Moby-Dick, or, The Whale by Herman Melville ed. Harrison Hayford and Hershel Parker
Mariners, Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live in by C.L.R. James
Hunting Captain Ahab: Psychological Warfare and the Melville Revival by Clare Spark
Lucchesi and the Whale by Frank Lentricchia
-------------------------------------------
"The American whaleman was a kind of prospector, the ancestor of the oilman, while the New England whaling industry itself . . . was killed off by the refining of kerosene from fossil fuel. Ishmael is an active participant in the process of extraction for profit, turning the wheels of production at home while extending the frontier abroad. " [ read more . . . ]
November 11, 2002
Shifting Weather Pattern?
News Item: String of tornadoes kill at least 30 in U.S.
[Deutsche Welle e-mail newsletter, 11/11/02]
"............ The weather service's Storm Prediction Center said it had reports of at least 45 tornadoes, since early Sunday morning across a half-dozen states. The U.S. National Weather Service said it was the worst outbreak of tornadoes in living memory."
I haven't researched this, people, but street talk in Oklahoma speaks about the meeting of cold air fronts from the north with moist, warm air fronts off the Caribbean happening east of Oklahoma more often. Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms are often spawned along the line of these clashing air fronts.
I see a tie-in to yesterday's weather events, right or wrong, with an unusual two-week warm period in Oklahoma with drizzling rain nearly every day from Halloween week through last week. We said to each other: "Is this the Pacific Northwest, or New Orleans, or what?" My simple-minded layman's view is that cold air flow from the north is presently shifted east leaving Oklahoma and environs prone to a "Caribbean rainy climate", and areas in the eastern United States subject to tornado-producing clashes of northern cold air with moist Caribbean air. There appears to be a pattern of this sort for the last several years.
This all carries into the realm of layman science speculation about shifting weather patterns caused by global warming, by El Niños, by La Niñas ...... you name it. For the time being, I tread no further into this matter so subject to pitfalls of oversimplification, to overdependence on apocryphal information, misapplication of probability conjectures, etc.
News Item: String of tornadoes kill at least 30 in U.S.
[Deutsche Welle e-mail newsletter, 11/11/02]
"............ The weather service's Storm Prediction Center said it had reports of at least 45 tornadoes, since early Sunday morning across a half-dozen states. The U.S. National Weather Service said it was the worst outbreak of tornadoes in living memory."
I haven't researched this, people, but street talk in Oklahoma speaks about the meeting of cold air fronts from the north with moist, warm air fronts off the Caribbean happening east of Oklahoma more often. Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms are often spawned along the line of these clashing air fronts.
I see a tie-in to yesterday's weather events, right or wrong, with an unusual two-week warm period in Oklahoma with drizzling rain nearly every day from Halloween week through last week. We said to each other: "Is this the Pacific Northwest, or New Orleans, or what?" My simple-minded layman's view is that cold air flow from the north is presently shifted east leaving Oklahoma and environs prone to a "Caribbean rainy climate", and areas in the eastern United States subject to tornado-producing clashes of northern cold air with moist Caribbean air. There appears to be a pattern of this sort for the last several years.
This all carries into the realm of layman science speculation about shifting weather patterns caused by global warming, by El Niños, by La Niñas ...... you name it. For the time being, I tread no further into this matter so subject to pitfalls of oversimplification, to overdependence on apocryphal information, misapplication of probability conjectures, etc.
Did I Mean Veterans Day? Yes.
Friendly readers, you better look out for old Jack. My Joyce Kilmer post talks about Memorial Day as if it is today. Hey, I'm trying to turn the clock forward (or backwards :)) to May. Did I Mean Veterans Day? Yes.
It took a stop at my friend Fred's furniture refinishing store to get straightened out. Fred is a retired Connecticut highway patrolman and we go together to target shoot with our pistols. I wished him a good Memorial Day. Fred says "Huh"! "It is Veterans Day. Oh No! I just told my blog readers wrong.
There is always a silver lining. I found the official Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Day website and there is a link to a 16-page Teachers Resource Guide, in Adobe Acrobat format, entitled "Honoring All Who Served" with information given about proper handling and respect for the flag. I looked for something like this before and now I found it to print out and save.
Friendly readers, you better look out for old Jack. My Joyce Kilmer post talks about Memorial Day as if it is today. Hey, I'm trying to turn the clock forward (or backwards :)) to May. Did I Mean Veterans Day? Yes.
It took a stop at my friend Fred's furniture refinishing store to get straightened out. Fred is a retired Connecticut highway patrolman and we go together to target shoot with our pistols. I wished him a good Memorial Day. Fred says "Huh"! "It is Veterans Day. Oh No! I just told my blog readers wrong.
There is always a silver lining. I found the official Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Day website and there is a link to a 16-page Teachers Resource Guide, in Adobe Acrobat format, entitled "Honoring All Who Served" with information given about proper handling and respect for the flag. I looked for something like this before and now I found it to print out and save.
Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886 - 1918) - Author of Trees and Other Poems
With the arrival of Memorial Day, I am doing my second day in a row of raking leaves and I find myself abruptly reminded of pleasant days spent in the New Brunswick area of New Jersey. I think of the poem "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer who was born in New Brunswick.
Tragically, Joyce Kilmer is one of the many young poets killed in World War I. Today Kilmer is memorialized in many ways in the New Brunswick area and is specially remembered, along with all veterans, on Memorial Day. I came to deeply appreciate Joyce Kilmer in my twelve years spent near his birthplace.
Also, speaking as a person who loves hiking, I am pleased to learn that Kilmer is the namesake of Joyce Kilmer National Forest in Graham County, North Carolina. I can't think of a more wonderful tribute to Joyce Kilmer.
Trees
by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks to God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
With the arrival of Memorial Day, I am doing my second day in a row of raking leaves and I find myself abruptly reminded of pleasant days spent in the New Brunswick area of New Jersey. I think of the poem "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer who was born in New Brunswick.
Tragically, Joyce Kilmer is one of the many young poets killed in World War I. Today Kilmer is memorialized in many ways in the New Brunswick area and is specially remembered, along with all veterans, on Memorial Day. I came to deeply appreciate Joyce Kilmer in my twelve years spent near his birthplace.
Also, speaking as a person who loves hiking, I am pleased to learn that Kilmer is the namesake of Joyce Kilmer National Forest in Graham County, North Carolina. I can't think of a more wonderful tribute to Joyce Kilmer.
Trees
by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks to God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
November 08, 2002
A Website for Action
My good friend Jerry in New Jersey read my "I am Pushed to the Limit" post about my next door burned out house. And Jerry sends me a great quote from Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher and mathematician who is considered "one of the great minds in Western intellectual history." (from Encarta)
"A long time ago, Blaise Pascal said that the world is in disarray because people no longer know hoe to sit quietly in their homes."
Oh, does that hit home for me! I have trouble saying "No" and I want to do it all myself - including rectifying inaction of government, citizens, corporations, etc., where action is called for; or visa-versa. And I want to do it NOW!
Well, thanks to Jerry and Blaise :-), an idea came forth for me to use the Internet to make a decisive move concerning disposition of the burned house ... and do it while sitting in my house. I built a one-page website for the "Citizen's Committee", made up of neighbors on my block, stating what we are doing while the house still stands and actions planned to facilitate demolishing the house. It is easily accessible to whoever may be concerned, including newspapers, radio and TV. And printouts make handy handouts at city council meetings, etc.
The "Citizen's Committee" website is at:
http://www.geocities.com/jackinwestok/East_Arapaho_200_Block_Committee.html
The website includes a picture of the burned out house. This is a case where a picture IS worth a thousand words.
My good friend Jerry in New Jersey read my "I am Pushed to the Limit" post about my next door burned out house. And Jerry sends me a great quote from Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher and mathematician who is considered "one of the great minds in Western intellectual history." (from Encarta)
"A long time ago, Blaise Pascal said that the world is in disarray because people no longer know hoe to sit quietly in their homes."
Oh, does that hit home for me! I have trouble saying "No" and I want to do it all myself - including rectifying inaction of government, citizens, corporations, etc., where action is called for; or visa-versa. And I want to do it NOW!
Well, thanks to Jerry and Blaise :-), an idea came forth for me to use the Internet to make a decisive move concerning disposition of the burned house ... and do it while sitting in my house. I built a one-page website for the "Citizen's Committee", made up of neighbors on my block, stating what we are doing while the house still stands and actions planned to facilitate demolishing the house. It is easily accessible to whoever may be concerned, including newspapers, radio and TV. And printouts make handy handouts at city council meetings, etc.
The "Citizen's Committee" website is at:
http://www.geocities.com/jackinwestok/East_Arapaho_200_Block_Committee.html
The website includes a picture of the burned out house. This is a case where a picture IS worth a thousand words.
November 07, 2002
I am Pushed to the Limit
December 28, 2001. A horrifying night I cannot get out of my mind ... nearly a year ago. My neighbor's house catches fire and a mother, age 41, and her two children, ages 11 and 12, are dead. The husband jumps off the roof and survives. These are my neighbors. These are my friends. And the burned shell of a house still stands - a reminder of the horror. I am pushed to the limit.
I am a patient person. Legal matters among family members cause delays. I don't want to add to their grief. The mayor and city council make promises and serve a 30-day notice to demolish the condemned building. Then the council serves another 30-day notice. Then the council serves another 30-day notice. ... etc. I am pushed to the limit.
I start organizing a block committee to show up in force at the next city council meeting and demand closure - that being demolishing the burned house. I find we are all pushed to the limit. I try to organize my thoughts, I try to write down things, ... and I am sitting here with writer's block, a headache and shaking hands. I am pushed to the limit.
I have to be realistic. I am heavily medicated for bipolar disorder - manic depression. Decompensation is always "just a step away" and I feel the aura that precedes losing stability. I am close to crossing the Rubicon. Do I risk harm to myself? I think I must take the risk because my neighbors need leadership. I notice a feeling among all of us of empowerment just from the few conversations about organizing a block committee. We need to make our position known. I am pushed to the limit.
December 28, 2001. A horrifying night I cannot get out of my mind ... nearly a year ago. My neighbor's house catches fire and a mother, age 41, and her two children, ages 11 and 12, are dead. The husband jumps off the roof and survives. These are my neighbors. These are my friends. And the burned shell of a house still stands - a reminder of the horror. I am pushed to the limit.
I am a patient person. Legal matters among family members cause delays. I don't want to add to their grief. The mayor and city council make promises and serve a 30-day notice to demolish the condemned building. Then the council serves another 30-day notice. Then the council serves another 30-day notice. ... etc. I am pushed to the limit.
I start organizing a block committee to show up in force at the next city council meeting and demand closure - that being demolishing the burned house. I find we are all pushed to the limit. I try to organize my thoughts, I try to write down things, ... and I am sitting here with writer's block, a headache and shaking hands. I am pushed to the limit.
I have to be realistic. I am heavily medicated for bipolar disorder - manic depression. Decompensation is always "just a step away" and I feel the aura that precedes losing stability. I am close to crossing the Rubicon. Do I risk harm to myself? I think I must take the risk because my neighbors need leadership. I notice a feeling among all of us of empowerment just from the few conversations about organizing a block committee. We need to make our position known. I am pushed to the limit.
November 05, 2002
Carrying in the Coal
Sitting in Goldmann's Main Street Hardware I am privileged to hear oral history from citizens often over 80 years old who still remember the life of pioneers settling the High Plains.
An older woman today saw a coal bucket for sale in the hardware store to use as decor near a fireplace. She reminisced how she had the chore to bring in a bucket of coal every evening. And with a broad smile she recalled that her parents never had to worry about her getting home late. She was afraid of the dark! So she always made sure to bring in the coal before sunset. The coal was carried from a coal crib around the back of the house into the house where it was used for heating and cooking.
With a laugh, my new found friend said that her brother who is six years younger claims he always carried in the coal. Well, she said, her brother distorts facts. She carried in a lot of coal before her brother reached an age where he could do it. I sensed that her brother is prone to an attitude that "women can't do men's work." She counters her brother's exaggerated memory of his own "male strength" by saying that for her carrying in coal was an easy job. As long as she did it before dark!
I got to thinking that on a remote plot of land with coyote howling, bobcats prowling, snakes slithering, ... etc., it is not a bit unreasonable that she was afraid of the dark.
Great lady! Great tales!
Sitting in Goldmann's Main Street Hardware I am privileged to hear oral history from citizens often over 80 years old who still remember the life of pioneers settling the High Plains.
An older woman today saw a coal bucket for sale in the hardware store to use as decor near a fireplace. She reminisced how she had the chore to bring in a bucket of coal every evening. And with a broad smile she recalled that her parents never had to worry about her getting home late. She was afraid of the dark! So she always made sure to bring in the coal before sunset. The coal was carried from a coal crib around the back of the house into the house where it was used for heating and cooking.
With a laugh, my new found friend said that her brother who is six years younger claims he always carried in the coal. Well, she said, her brother distorts facts. She carried in a lot of coal before her brother reached an age where he could do it. I sensed that her brother is prone to an attitude that "women can't do men's work." She counters her brother's exaggerated memory of his own "male strength" by saying that for her carrying in coal was an easy job. As long as she did it before dark!
I got to thinking that on a remote plot of land with coyote howling, bobcats prowling, snakes slithering, ... etc., it is not a bit unreasonable that she was afraid of the dark.
Great lady! Great tales!
November 04, 2002
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Jack finds these words of Emerson spellbinding. I think: "It doesn't get any better than this."
-----------------------------------------
"To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends,
To appreciate beauty,
To find the best in others,
To leave the world a better place,
Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition.
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived,
This is to have succeeded."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Jack finds these words of Emerson spellbinding. I think: "It doesn't get any better than this."
-----------------------------------------
"To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends,
To appreciate beauty,
To find the best in others,
To leave the world a better place,
Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition.
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived,
This is to have succeeded."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
November 01, 2002
The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven
The turkey shot out of the oven
and rocketed into the air,
it knocked every plate off the table
and partly demolished a chair.
It ricocheted into a corner
and burst with a deafening boom,
then splattered all over the kitchen,
completely obscuring the room.
It stuck to the walls and the windows,
it totally coated the floor,
there was turkey attached to the ceiling,
where there'd never been turkey before.
It blanketed every appliance,
It smeared every saucer and bowl,
there wasn't a way I could stop it,
that turkey was out of control.
I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure,
and thought with chagrin as I mopped,
that I'd never again stuff a turkey
with popcorn that hadn't been popped
by Jack Prelutsky
The turkey shot out of the oven
and rocketed into the air,
it knocked every plate off the table
and partly demolished a chair.
It ricocheted into a corner
and burst with a deafening boom,
then splattered all over the kitchen,
completely obscuring the room.
It stuck to the walls and the windows,
it totally coated the floor,
there was turkey attached to the ceiling,
where there'd never been turkey before.
It blanketed every appliance,
It smeared every saucer and bowl,
there wasn't a way I could stop it,
that turkey was out of control.
I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure,
and thought with chagrin as I mopped,
that I'd never again stuff a turkey
with popcorn that hadn't been popped
by Jack Prelutsky
October 31, 2002
The Invaluable Common Sense I Learned in a Farm Country Upbringing
Over the years I told many people I owed much of my success working in industry to the common sense I learned from my Oklahoma farm country upbringing: having farmer friends, working weekends on farms - shocking oats, loading bales of hay, picking cotton, helping to build a pig feeder, safely driving a tractor; work hard - "put in a day's work for a day's pay"; be trustworthy - "do what you say you will do, and do it on time if humanly possible"; show respect for the "boss" and for fellow workers; have pride in work; etc.
I got "book learning" at Weatherford High School and then the University of Oklahoma and Rutgers University - all wonderful schools for education in my chosen field of science. And my science education was essential for my success. But the common sense from my upbringing in farm country also led to success in science in ways too numerous to count.
In the magazine Successful Farming - Voice of the people on the land I find an article that is so reminiscent of the "down home" gift of common sense I owe to farm people and farm knowledge. There is a "ring" of the Scientific Method to the subject of collecting and using data to optimize farm production - and to the resourcefulness needed to gain knowledge from research and data handling with minimum effort (think cost.) A summary of the article is included with this post.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o
The call of the wild data
Article in Successful Farming - Voice of the people on the land by Katie Thompson
@agriculture online
2002-10-18 19:39:28.0
http://www.agriculture.com/default.sph/agNotebook.class?FNC=ArticleList__Aarticle_html___8249___800
Yours for the taking:
Data
It takes time to start using your data, and it should.
Step One: Look
"I always recommend to start with yield maps," says Robert [Pierre Robert, professor of precision agriculture at the University of Minnesota]. Get to know your fields. "Some may have more variability than others."
Step Two: Triage
Select 'management zones'. The best targets for improvement will be the fields with the most variability.
"Within the field, when he has several years of data, then he may start defining zones," says Robert. You have to narrow down your targets for a good reason: Money.
"Grid sampling is expensive," says Robert.
Step Three: Get more data
Grid sampling is soil testing done at intervals over an entire field, so that each 2.5 acres (or so) is tested separately. Soil testing can also be done on smaller areas -- management zones of a few acres, for example. The tests look at nutrients and pH of the soil.
"I would always look at pH," says Robert. Why? Because pH can have a big impact on plant growth.
Step Four: Use the data
Now you can do precision application of nutrients or precision liming, for example.
"Liming is always a good candidate for variable application for benefits," says Robert. "We have many examples where that works."
And beyond
The next step might be variable planting, where the planter automatically plants more or less seeds, depending on the quality of the soil at each position in the field.
"But that really requires some experiments," says Robert. It may not be the best solution for all fields.
Over the years I told many people I owed much of my success working in industry to the common sense I learned from my Oklahoma farm country upbringing: having farmer friends, working weekends on farms - shocking oats, loading bales of hay, picking cotton, helping to build a pig feeder, safely driving a tractor; work hard - "put in a day's work for a day's pay"; be trustworthy - "do what you say you will do, and do it on time if humanly possible"; show respect for the "boss" and for fellow workers; have pride in work; etc.
I got "book learning" at Weatherford High School and then the University of Oklahoma and Rutgers University - all wonderful schools for education in my chosen field of science. And my science education was essential for my success. But the common sense from my upbringing in farm country also led to success in science in ways too numerous to count.
In the magazine Successful Farming - Voice of the people on the land I find an article that is so reminiscent of the "down home" gift of common sense I owe to farm people and farm knowledge. There is a "ring" of the Scientific Method to the subject of collecting and using data to optimize farm production - and to the resourcefulness needed to gain knowledge from research and data handling with minimum effort (think cost.) A summary of the article is included with this post.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o
The call of the wild data
Article in Successful Farming - Voice of the people on the land by Katie Thompson
@agriculture online
2002-10-18 19:39:28.0
http://www.agriculture.com/default.sph/agNotebook.class?FNC=ArticleList__Aarticle_html___8249___800
Yours for the taking:
Data
It takes time to start using your data, and it should.
Step One: Look
"I always recommend to start with yield maps," says Robert [Pierre Robert, professor of precision agriculture at the University of Minnesota]. Get to know your fields. "Some may have more variability than others."
Step Two: Triage
Select 'management zones'. The best targets for improvement will be the fields with the most variability.
"Within the field, when he has several years of data, then he may start defining zones," says Robert. You have to narrow down your targets for a good reason: Money.
"Grid sampling is expensive," says Robert.
Step Three: Get more data
Grid sampling is soil testing done at intervals over an entire field, so that each 2.5 acres (or so) is tested separately. Soil testing can also be done on smaller areas -- management zones of a few acres, for example. The tests look at nutrients and pH of the soil.
"I would always look at pH," says Robert. Why? Because pH can have a big impact on plant growth.
Step Four: Use the data
Now you can do precision application of nutrients or precision liming, for example.
"Liming is always a good candidate for variable application for benefits," says Robert. "We have many examples where that works."
And beyond
The next step might be variable planting, where the planter automatically plants more or less seeds, depending on the quality of the soil at each position in the field.
"But that really requires some experiments," says Robert. It may not be the best solution for all fields.
October 30, 2002
Video of A VERY BIG Electrical Discharge :-)
Natural History online (September 2002) offers a free videotape of a humongous "electrical flash phenomena."
http://www.amnh.org/naturalhistory/
Since I was a kid I am fascinated by things like the movie props used in Frankenstein movies, serious scientific apparatus such as Tesla coils, etc., with dramatic display of electrical discharges.
So WOW! The online video from Natural History showing an electrical discharge "that stretches from the tops of thunderclouds (about ten miles above Earth) to the bottom of the ionosphere (about forty miles up) just about "knocks my socks off."
The electrical flash phenomena was videotaped for the first time by researchers working at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. (Video courtesy of Victor P. Pasko, Mark A. Stanley, John D. Mathews, Umran S. Inan, and Troy G. Wood.)
Note: In order to view the video clip, software that supports the MP3 file format such as the RealPlayer is needed. A link is given to install RealPlayer free at the RealNetworks website.
http://www.real.com/realone/index.html?src=player_redct
(Additional Note: Unless wanted, a "for-pay" subscription for "RealOne RadioPass" need not be turned in.)
Natural History online (September 2002) offers a free videotape of a humongous "electrical flash phenomena."
http://www.amnh.org/naturalhistory/
Since I was a kid I am fascinated by things like the movie props used in Frankenstein movies, serious scientific apparatus such as Tesla coils, etc., with dramatic display of electrical discharges.
So WOW! The online video from Natural History showing an electrical discharge "that stretches from the tops of thunderclouds (about ten miles above Earth) to the bottom of the ionosphere (about forty miles up) just about "knocks my socks off."
The electrical flash phenomena was videotaped for the first time by researchers working at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. (Video courtesy of Victor P. Pasko, Mark A. Stanley, John D. Mathews, Umran S. Inan, and Troy G. Wood.)
Note: In order to view the video clip, software that supports the MP3 file format such as the RealPlayer is needed. A link is given to install RealPlayer free at the RealNetworks website.
http://www.real.com/realone/index.html?src=player_redct
(Additional Note: Unless wanted, a "for-pay" subscription for "RealOne RadioPass" need not be turned in.)
October 29, 2002
QUOTE OF THE WEEK --------
"A series of failures may culminate in the best possible result."
-- Gisela Richter
(in www.DiabetesinControl.com newsletter)
"A series of failures may culminate in the best possible result."
-- Gisela Richter
(in www.DiabetesinControl.com newsletter)
October 27, 2002
Hypotheses of the Origin of Life
One of the exciting moments of my early scientific career in chemistry was reading the monograph "The Origin of Life on the Earth" published in 1957 by the Russian biochemist Aleksandr Ivanovich Oparin (known only to me at the time as A.I. Oparin) 1894-1980. This was my first exposure to the hypothesis that chemicals with the potential to form replicative life, including amino acids, proteins, DNA, etc., can form in nature under conditions of the primordial earth.
So I am excited again like I was as a young man to read recent scientific research supportive of Oparin's ideas. News about the research appears in an article "Trapping DNA Through Thermophoresis" in the American Institute of Physics Physics News Update Number 610 #1, October 22, 2002 by Phil Schewe, James Riordon, and Ben Stein.
In experiments conducted by Dieter Braun and Albert Libchaber, fluorescent-tagged DNA molecules in a water media are repelled by a laser-generated hot spot and then "come back." Close observation showed a convection cell pattern about 20 microns across and with the DNA concentration enhanced by a factor of 1000.
These findings are especially interesting for me because the theory and application of non-equilibrium processes, including convection cell formation, are concepts commonly used in chemical engineering - and during my career I had the good fortune of working both in research chemistry and later in chemical engineering. Boy, that was enjoyable!
In summarizing the research, the authors of the Physics News Update article state: "Demonstrating a mechanism for confining early metabolic and replicative life forms in a far-from-equilibrium environment such as localized heat sources (e.g., hydrothermal vents) immersed in a cold ocean, should be of interest to biologists who ponder the advent of life."
One of the exciting moments of my early scientific career in chemistry was reading the monograph "The Origin of Life on the Earth" published in 1957 by the Russian biochemist Aleksandr Ivanovich Oparin (known only to me at the time as A.I. Oparin) 1894-1980. This was my first exposure to the hypothesis that chemicals with the potential to form replicative life, including amino acids, proteins, DNA, etc., can form in nature under conditions of the primordial earth.
So I am excited again like I was as a young man to read recent scientific research supportive of Oparin's ideas. News about the research appears in an article "Trapping DNA Through Thermophoresis" in the American Institute of Physics Physics News Update Number 610 #1, October 22, 2002 by Phil Schewe, James Riordon, and Ben Stein.
In experiments conducted by Dieter Braun and Albert Libchaber, fluorescent-tagged DNA molecules in a water media are repelled by a laser-generated hot spot and then "come back." Close observation showed a convection cell pattern about 20 microns across and with the DNA concentration enhanced by a factor of 1000.
These findings are especially interesting for me because the theory and application of non-equilibrium processes, including convection cell formation, are concepts commonly used in chemical engineering - and during my career I had the good fortune of working both in research chemistry and later in chemical engineering. Boy, that was enjoyable!
In summarizing the research, the authors of the Physics News Update article state: "Demonstrating a mechanism for confining early metabolic and replicative life forms in a far-from-equilibrium environment such as localized heat sources (e.g., hydrothermal vents) immersed in a cold ocean, should be of interest to biologists who ponder the advent of life."
Dining in Baku, Azerbaijan
My blog readers know I sometimes take interest in cuisine that is off the "beaten track." An example is my post [9/4/2002 8:20:32 PM] about cherryburgers made with 10% minced tart cherries mixed with lean burger meat. Unfortunately, fresh cherries are currently out of season in Oklahoma. But, not to be a "quitter", I got the idea of making cherryburgers with canned cherry pie filling. Bad idea! :-) I managed to make a "muckburger" that was barely edible.
Now my interest is perked by a "Tales From the Caucasus" column in the October 22 Moscow Times entitled "You Can't Beat the Taste: This Tomato's for Real" by Chloe Arnold in Baku, Azerbaijan. For example, my taste buds are whetted for Azeri cuisine by learning: "If you ask for a salad, the waiter will bring you a plate with two tomatoes, two cucumbers and a fistful of fresh herbs torn straight from the garden. Sometimes they're still clinging to clods of earth with perhaps a worm or two struggling to get away."
Continuing the description: "Because they taste so good, there's no need to char-grill them or roast them or smother them in fancy dressings. Azeris just sprinkle on a little salt and a dried herb called sumakh, which looks like fine red tobacco."
From the article, it sounds as if the real dining fun starts on leaving the capital Baku for the countryside. Evidently the basic menu choices are mutton, mutton and barbecued mutton served in the ubiquitous kebab style. :-) But there is a mutton delicacy for special occasions called khash that is worth reading about. Suffice it to say - "Tradition has it that the khash must be eaten before sunrise -- and accompanied by jugfuls of vodka." Hmmm. Now that sounds daring to try. ;-)
My blog readers know I sometimes take interest in cuisine that is off the "beaten track." An example is my post [9/4/2002 8:20:32 PM] about cherryburgers made with 10% minced tart cherries mixed with lean burger meat. Unfortunately, fresh cherries are currently out of season in Oklahoma. But, not to be a "quitter", I got the idea of making cherryburgers with canned cherry pie filling. Bad idea! :-) I managed to make a "muckburger"
Now my interest is perked by a "Tales From the Caucasus" column in the October 22 Moscow Times entitled "You Can't Beat the Taste: This Tomato's for Real" by Chloe Arnold in Baku, Azerbaijan. For example, my taste buds are whetted for Azeri cuisine by learning: "If you ask for a salad, the waiter will bring you a plate with two tomatoes, two cucumbers and a fistful of fresh herbs torn straight from the garden. Sometimes they're still clinging to clods of earth with perhaps a worm or two struggling to get away."
Continuing the description: "Because they taste so good, there's no need to char-grill them or roast them or smother them in fancy dressings. Azeris just sprinkle on a little salt and a dried herb called sumakh, which looks like fine red tobacco."
From the article, it sounds as if the real dining fun starts on leaving the capital Baku for the countryside. Evidently the basic menu choices are mutton, mutton and barbecued mutton served in the ubiquitous kebab style. :-) But there is a mutton delicacy for special occasions called khash that is worth reading about. Suffice it to say - "Tradition has it that the khash must be eaten before sunrise -- and accompanied by jugfuls of vodka." Hmmm. Now that sounds daring to try. ;-)
October 25, 2002
In mourning for Senator Paul David Wellstone and family members and friends
I mourn a fellow Jew, a fellow liberal, a fellow advocate for the mentally ill, a fellow decent human being ... and on and on.
After reading a message from Barry about the tragedy of Senator Wellstone's death today in an airplane crash, along with his wife, and one of his three children - and also with his close supporters, my first response is my mourning and then placing an order with Amazon for Senator Wellstone's book. I am compelled to read about his "compassionate agenda."
The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda
by Paul David Wellstone
The editorial reviews say it all about Senator Wellstone's great accomplishments, and what might have been :-(
-- Jack
--------------------
Amazon.com
"When senators think about running for president, they write books like The Conscience of a Liberal. Indeed, Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota thought about pursuing the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, but ultimately backed off. There's some speculation he'll run in 2004. Whatever the case, he's known in Washington as one of the Senate's most liberal members--giving his better-known colleagues Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton a run for their money in this category. The first part of the book explains Wellstone's unlikely ascension to the Senate (he was once a college professor), and some of his campaign war stories are fun reading for political junkies. One of the most amusing passages describes how he once nearly clocked New York Republican Alfonse D'Amato over a disagreement: "When the train reached the Senate chamber, I jumped out and lunged forward, intending to catch D'Amato and deck him. My body was shaking with uncontrollable anger." Another senator held him back, and Wellstone calmed down.
The bulk of The Conscience of a Liberal, however, is given over to laying out a political agenda that includes universal health care, reversing welfare reforms, prekindergarten education, raising the minimum wage, and campaign-finance reform. He closes with a call for a new politics: "This is not a conservative America.... There is a huge leadership void in this country that the Democratic Party, emboldened by political courage and a commitment to the issues that made our party great, can fill." Democrats looking for a candidate to support in the next presidential election may want to start here." --John J. Miller
I mourn a fellow Jew, a fellow liberal, a fellow advocate for the mentally ill, a fellow decent human being ... and on and on.
After reading a message from Barry about the tragedy of Senator Wellstone's death today in an airplane crash, along with his wife, and one of his three children - and also with his close supporters, my first response is my mourning and then placing an order with Amazon for Senator Wellstone's book. I am compelled to read about his "compassionate agenda."
The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda
by Paul David Wellstone
The editorial reviews say it all about Senator Wellstone's great accomplishments, and what might have been :-(
-- Jack
--------------------
Amazon.com
"When senators think about running for president, they write books like The Conscience of a Liberal. Indeed, Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota thought about pursuing the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, but ultimately backed off. There's some speculation he'll run in 2004. Whatever the case, he's known in Washington as one of the Senate's most liberal members--giving his better-known colleagues Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton a run for their money in this category. The first part of the book explains Wellstone's unlikely ascension to the Senate (he was once a college professor), and some of his campaign war stories are fun reading for political junkies. One of the most amusing passages describes how he once nearly clocked New York Republican Alfonse D'Amato over a disagreement: "When the train reached the Senate chamber, I jumped out and lunged forward, intending to catch D'Amato and deck him. My body was shaking with uncontrollable anger." Another senator held him back, and Wellstone calmed down.
The bulk of The Conscience of a Liberal, however, is given over to laying out a political agenda that includes universal health care, reversing welfare reforms, prekindergarten education, raising the minimum wage, and campaign-finance reform. He closes with a call for a new politics: "This is not a conservative America.... There is a huge leadership void in this country that the Democratic Party, emboldened by political courage and a commitment to the issues that made our party great, can fill." Democrats looking for a candidate to support in the next presidential election may want to start here." --John J. Miller
October 22, 2002
Twenty-first Century "Caveat Emptor"
Of the many Latin expressions used in English, I best remember "caveat emptor" - Let the buyer beware.
I think of "caveat emptor" nearly every day in making purchasing decisions.
But I am impressed with a "new age" (my wording) expression used in the current Village Voice Mr. Roboto computer column in a long and useful discussion of various ink-jet cartridge cost-saving alternatives.
The article closes with a word of caution if shopping for ink-jet cartridge bargains on the Internet.
"Just promise you'll never do business with an e-merchant who doesn't offer a money-back guarantee in writing, or who lacks a fixed address and phone number. It'd be a shame if your humble quest for cheaper ink wound up enriching a Vladivostok fraudster, now, wouldn't it?"
So now I am going to think of not "enriching a Vladivostok fraudster" every time I think of "caveat emptor." But my sense of political correctness will probably keep me from speaking this phrase out loud. :-)
Of the many Latin expressions used in English, I best remember "caveat emptor" - Let the buyer beware.
I think of "caveat emptor" nearly every day in making purchasing decisions.
But I am impressed with a "new age" (my wording) expression used in the current Village Voice Mr. Roboto computer column in a long and useful discussion of various ink-jet cartridge cost-saving alternatives.
The article closes with a word of caution if shopping for ink-jet cartridge bargains on the Internet.
"Just promise you'll never do business with an e-merchant who doesn't offer a money-back guarantee in writing, or who lacks a fixed address and phone number. It'd be a shame if your humble quest for cheaper ink wound up enriching a Vladivostok fraudster, now, wouldn't it?"
So now I am going to think of not "enriching a Vladivostok fraudster" every time I think of "caveat emptor." But my sense of political correctness will probably keep me from speaking this phrase out loud. :-)
October 21, 2002
Tear-inducing onions get the chop
NewScientist.com news service October 16, 2002
James Randerson
(Note from Jack: A previous blog post talked about why cutting onions causes tears and we had some fun discussion among blog readers. Gee, think of the excitement lost if cutting onions causes no tears! ;-) Previous Post: [8/26/2002 3:46:49 PM | Jack Schwartz] The Tear Factor By Robert L. Wolke, Washington Post , Food Section, Wednesday, August 21, 2002; Page F01)
Excerpt from New Scientist article:
"Onions that taste as good as the original but do not have you weeping over the chopping board are now a possibility, say Japanese researchers.
The team have identified the gene responsible for making the tear-inducing substance. They say it would not be difficult to make genetically modified onion varieties that lack the substance altogether."
[Click here for full article.]
Journal reference: Nature (vol 419, p 685)
NewScientist.com news service October 16, 2002
James Randerson
(Note from Jack: A previous blog post talked about why cutting onions causes tears and we had some fun discussion among blog readers. Gee, think of the excitement lost if cutting onions causes no tears! ;-) Previous Post: [8/26/2002 3:46:49 PM | Jack Schwartz] The Tear Factor By Robert L. Wolke, Washington Post , Food Section, Wednesday, August 21, 2002; Page F01)
Excerpt from New Scientist article:
"Onions that taste as good as the original but do not have you weeping over the chopping board are now a possibility, say Japanese researchers.
The team have identified the gene responsible for making the tear-inducing substance. They say it would not be difficult to make genetically modified onion varieties that lack the substance altogether."
[Click here for full article.]
Journal reference: Nature (vol 419, p 685)
October 20, 2002
Mooses Come Walking
by Arlo Guthrie
Published as an illustrated children's book.
Jack connects "Mooses" with Arlo Guthrie from a vivid personal experience. Not long after the moose hunt in 1980 when I first shot my own moose, I skied with a good friend, Mike, at Brighton Ski Area near Salt Lake City. We had tickets to go to an Arlo Guthrie concert in the evening. Near the end of the ski day, Mike "crashed and burned" and was slow getting up. I nearly called first aid, but Mike got up and skied again.
Then at the Arlo Guthrie concert Mike nearly passed out after the first three songs, and I assisted him, with difficulty(!), to the car and the hospital. He nearly died from internal bleeding. :-( His parents came and I drove the car home to Green River in nearby southwest Wyoming.
So "mooses" (my hunter friends and I say "meece" :)) and Arlo Guthrie are forever connected in my personal memory - and now in Arlo's poem.
-----------------------------------------------------
Mooses Come Walking
by Arlo Guthrie
Mooses come walking over the hill
Mooses come walking, they rarely stand still
When mooses come walking they go where they will
When mooses come walking over the hill
Mooses look into your window at night
They look to the left and they look to the right
The mooses are smiling, they think it's a zoo
And that's why the mooses like looking at you
So, if you see mooses while lying in bed
It's best to just stay there pretending you're dead
The mooses will leave and you'll get the thrill
Of seeing the mooses go over the hill
1993 Arloco Music, Inc. (ASCAP)
by Arlo Guthrie
Published as an illustrated children's book.
Jack connects "Mooses" with Arlo Guthrie from a vivid personal experience. Not long after the moose hunt in 1980 when I first shot my own moose, I skied with a good friend, Mike, at Brighton Ski Area near Salt Lake City. We had tickets to go to an Arlo Guthrie concert in the evening. Near the end of the ski day, Mike "crashed and burned" and was slow getting up. I nearly called first aid, but Mike got up and skied again.
Then at the Arlo Guthrie concert Mike nearly passed out after the first three songs, and I assisted him, with difficulty(!), to the car and the hospital. He nearly died from internal bleeding. :-( His parents came and I drove the car home to Green River in nearby southwest Wyoming.
So "mooses" (my hunter friends and I say "meece" :)) and Arlo Guthrie are forever connected in my personal memory - and now in Arlo's poem.
-----------------------------------------------------
Mooses Come Walking
by Arlo Guthrie
Mooses come walking over the hill
Mooses come walking, they rarely stand still
When mooses come walking they go where they will
When mooses come walking over the hill
Mooses look into your window at night
They look to the left and they look to the right
The mooses are smiling, they think it's a zoo
And that's why the mooses like looking at you
So, if you see mooses while lying in bed
It's best to just stay there pretending you're dead
The mooses will leave and you'll get the thrill
Of seeing the mooses go over the hill
1993 Arloco Music, Inc. (ASCAP)
October 19, 2002
Jewish Proverb About Work
Thanks to Allan who gave Jack for his birthday last year the book: "Where There's Smoke, There's Salmon: The Book of Jewish Proverbs" - "Jewish Wisdom-From Moses to Woody Allen", by Michael Levin, Citadel Press, c. 2001.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
"To succeed in business, always follow two principles: honesty and wisdom. Honesty means that if you promise to deliver a shipment of goods on the twenty-fourth of March, you deliver the shipment. Wisdom means being smart enough not to promise anything."
-- Sam Levinson
Thanks to Allan who gave Jack for his birthday last year the book: "Where There's Smoke, There's Salmon: The Book of Jewish Proverbs" - "Jewish Wisdom-From Moses to Woody Allen", by Michael Levin, Citadel Press, c. 2001.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
"To succeed in business, always follow two principles: honesty and wisdom. Honesty means that if you promise to deliver a shipment of goods on the twenty-fourth of March, you deliver the shipment. Wisdom means being smart enough not to promise anything."
-- Sam Levinson
October 17, 2002
Happy 75th Birthday to Günter Grass
Jack believes in giving praise where praise is due. On reading about Günter Grass, I think of Leonardo!
DW-WORLD.de (Deutsche Welle German Radio News Service)
"Günter Grass: author, poet, painter, sculptor, public moralist and Nobel prize winner. Germany’s best-known living writer celebrates his 75th birthday on October 16 and shows no sign of slowing down."
http://kleist.dwelle.de/english/culture/culture2.html
----------------
Nobel e-Museum
Günter Grass
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1999
"whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history"
http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1999/
Günter Grass – Prose
http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1999/grass-prose.html
This website contains excerpts from The Tin Drum, by Günter Grass
selected by Åke Erlandsson, The Swedish Academy
Jack believes in giving praise where praise is due. On reading about Günter Grass, I think of Leonardo!
DW-WORLD.de (Deutsche Welle German Radio News Service)
"Günter Grass: author, poet, painter, sculptor, public moralist and Nobel prize winner. Germany’s best-known living writer celebrates his 75th birthday on October 16 and shows no sign of slowing down."
http://kleist.dwelle.de/english/culture/culture2.html
----------------
Nobel e-Museum
Günter Grass
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1999
"whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history"
http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1999/
Günter Grass – Prose
http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1999/grass-prose.html
This website contains excerpts from The Tin Drum, by Günter Grass
selected by Åke Erlandsson, The Swedish Academy
On Risk Perception As It Relates To The 9/11 Casualties
This is a bit heavier subject than the topics I usually pick for a blog post. But I have an intrigue with rationales for modern human behavior and the "human condition" that relate back to our distant "hunter-gatherer" life as nomads and cave dwellers.
For just one example that directly affects me, there is a rationale for the "diabetes epidemic" that our body metabolism is adapted to high protein and fat - thus being used to low carbohydrates including sugars. The primitive diet was mostly game meat, nuts and berries, seeds, etc. The modern diet includes high carbohydrate potatoes, wheat, corn, rice, etc., that are adapted to efficient high-yield agriculture - and with palatability enhanced by techniques such as milling to flour and baking bread, tortillas, rice patties, and so on. As the scenario is painted, our metabolism has not adapted yet in the relatively short time (from an evolution standpoint) to a high-carbohydrate diet. Hence, metabolic regulation of blood glucose (think blood sugar) is inadequate for a large segment of the population. Hence for my own personal regimen as a person with diabetes, I achieve tighter blood glucose control by going on a low-carbohydrate diet.
Without further ado, I include an excerpt from a Skeptical Inquirer article relating to distorted risk perception following 9/11. The excerpt brings out factors related to our primitive past, and even fairly recent past, that are intriguing to me.
----------------------------------------
Skeptical Inquirer magazine : September/October 2002
http://www.csicop.org/si/2002-09/9-11.html
A Skeptical Look at September 11th
How We Can Defeat Terrorism by Reacting to It More Rationally
by Clark R. Chapman and Alan W. Harris
"At the one-year anniversary, we examine reactions to the September 11, 2001, attacks in the context of other causes of premature deaths. An objective of terrorism is to multiply damage by inducing irrational fears in the broad population. One defense is to learn to evaluate such situations more objectively."
[Excerpt - in middle of article]
Death and Statistics
"It is a maxim that one needless or untimely death is one too many. So 20,000 victims should be 20,000 times worse. But our minds don't work that way." .................
[--------]
..........."To researchers in risk perception, this is natural human behavior. We are evolved from primitive nomads and cave dwellers who never knew, personally, more than the few hundred people in their locales. Until just a few generations ago, news from other lands arrived sporadically via sailors; most people lived and died within a few miles of where they were born. Tragedies invariably concerned a known, nearby person. With the globalization of communication, the world-not just our local valley-has entered our consciousness. But our brains haven't evolved to relate, personally, to each of 6 billion people. Only when the media singles out someone-perhaps an "average layperson" or maybe a tragic exception like JonBenet Ramsey-do our hearts and minds connect."
This is a bit heavier subject than the topics I usually pick for a blog post. But I have an intrigue with rationales for modern human behavior and the "human condition" that relate back to our distant "hunter-gatherer" life as nomads and cave dwellers.
For just one example that directly affects me, there is a rationale for the "diabetes epidemic" that our body metabolism is adapted to high protein and fat - thus being used to low carbohydrates including sugars. The primitive diet was mostly game meat, nuts and berries, seeds, etc. The modern diet includes high carbohydrate potatoes, wheat, corn, rice, etc., that are adapted to efficient high-yield agriculture - and with palatability enhanced by techniques such as milling to flour and baking bread, tortillas, rice patties, and so on. As the scenario is painted, our metabolism has not adapted yet in the relatively short time (from an evolution standpoint) to a high-carbohydrate diet. Hence, metabolic regulation of blood glucose (think blood sugar) is inadequate for a large segment of the population. Hence for my own personal regimen as a person with diabetes, I achieve tighter blood glucose control by going on a low-carbohydrate diet.
Without further ado, I include an excerpt from a Skeptical Inquirer article relating to distorted risk perception following 9/11. The excerpt brings out factors related to our primitive past, and even fairly recent past, that are intriguing to me.
----------------------------------------
Skeptical Inquirer magazine : September/October 2002
http://www.csicop.org/si/2002-09/9-11.html
A Skeptical Look at September 11th
How We Can Defeat Terrorism by Reacting to It More Rationally
by Clark R. Chapman and Alan W. Harris
"At the one-year anniversary, we examine reactions to the September 11, 2001, attacks in the context of other causes of premature deaths. An objective of terrorism is to multiply damage by inducing irrational fears in the broad population. One defense is to learn to evaluate such situations more objectively."
[Excerpt - in middle of article]
Death and Statistics
"It is a maxim that one needless or untimely death is one too many. So 20,000 victims should be 20,000 times worse. But our minds don't work that way." .................
[--------]
..........."To researchers in risk perception, this is natural human behavior. We are evolved from primitive nomads and cave dwellers who never knew, personally, more than the few hundred people in their locales. Until just a few generations ago, news from other lands arrived sporadically via sailors; most people lived and died within a few miles of where they were born. Tragedies invariably concerned a known, nearby person. With the globalization of communication, the world-not just our local valley-has entered our consciousness. But our brains haven't evolved to relate, personally, to each of 6 billion people. Only when the media singles out someone-perhaps an "average layperson" or maybe a tragic exception like JonBenet Ramsey-do our hearts and minds connect."
Post Mortem - Will I Ever Get My Files Organized? :-)
One of my blog readers sent me a joshing comment:
"And about the mess of papers building up... tsk, tsk. ;-) "
After a good chuckle, I thought about the "real" basis for my organization dilemma. When I file things they are sometimes harder to find than if I leave them in piles. :-(
Actually, I did have a two-year period my papers were timely filed using a system that made retrieval easy. Those were my two years as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. As such, I was in charge of a large supply room and machine shop for a chemical, biological and radiological materials transportation unit. And the Army DOES run on paper, as legend has it. :-) And most important for me, I delegated the filing duties to my Supply Sergeant. And he did a very good job! Also, the Army filing system is very methodical - similar to library cataloging. Hey! Even I figured out the system. :-)
One of my blog readers sent me a joshing comment:
"And about the mess of papers building up... tsk, tsk. ;-) "
After a good chuckle, I thought about the "real" basis for my organization dilemma. When I file things they are sometimes harder to find than if I leave them in piles. :-(
Actually, I did have a two-year period my papers were timely filed using a system that made retrieval easy. Those were my two years as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. As such, I was in charge of a large supply room and machine shop for a chemical, biological and radiological materials transportation unit. And the Army DOES run on paper, as legend has it. :-) And most important for me, I delegated the filing duties to my Supply Sergeant. And he did a very good job! Also, the Army filing system is very methodical - similar to library cataloging. Hey! Even I figured out the system. :-)
October 16, 2002
Will I Ever Get My Files Organized? :-)
I notice since starting the Jack in Oklahoma blog that I add "favorites" (a.k.a. "bookmarks") more frequently to my MS Internet Explorer browser - and also I use them more frequently. Fine and good. But, now I have a massively disorganized favorites list file. My Internet files, my work files, my home files - you have it - they are disorganized.
Here is a little background. In my thirty-two year career with FMC Corporation, my improvement objectives almost every year included getting my files more organized. You got it. :-) I never achieved the goal.
My files are always a mess and my desk is 'always' stacked with papers. For awhile the engineering supervisor made every Friday afternoon a "cleanup day" and we had to have clean desk tops. OK - so I just found places to hide the piles. ;-)
At home - the same thing. On my left, I am looking at a pile of paid utility, phone, etc., bills that go back several months. Behind me is a multi-month pile of medical statements, medical records, etc.. There are just plain piles of paper everywhere! 8-]
I've misplaced many things, including at least two books on how to get organized. Ho ho ho!
Back to my web browser favorites list. I looked at my list and I have a tendency to make a new folder for each new link I decide to file. Great! But I end up looking, looking, .... often through most of the files with much frustration to find where I filed that link I need RIGHT NOW> <-8) So today I tried merging folders, creating sub-folders, and so on ... in some sort of logical way.
I repeat. Will I Ever Get My Files Organized? :-)
I notice since starting the Jack in Oklahoma blog that I add "favorites" (a.k.a. "bookmarks") more frequently to my MS Internet Explorer browser - and also I use them more frequently. Fine and good. But, now I have a massively disorganized favorites list file. My Internet files, my work files, my home files - you have it - they are disorganized.
Here is a little background. In my thirty-two year career with FMC Corporation, my improvement objectives almost every year included getting my files more organized. You got it. :-) I never achieved the goal.
My files are always a mess and my desk is 'always' stacked with papers. For awhile the engineering supervisor made every Friday afternoon a "cleanup day" and we had to have clean desk tops. OK - so I just found places to hide the piles. ;-)
At home - the same thing. On my left, I am looking at a pile of paid utility, phone, etc., bills that go back several months. Behind me is a multi-month pile of medical statements, medical records, etc.. There are just plain piles of paper everywhere! 8-]
I've misplaced many things, including at least two books on how to get organized. Ho ho ho!
Back to my web browser favorites list. I looked at my list and I have a tendency to make a new folder for each new link I decide to file. Great! But I end up looking, looking, .... often through most of the files with much frustration to find where I filed that link I need RIGHT NOW> <-8) So today I tried merging folders, creating sub-folders, and so on ... in some sort of logical way.
I repeat. Will I Ever Get My Files Organized? :-)
I Like "One Liners". :-)
Found in The Village Voice (New York) sports column "Jockbeat" concerning a season opening loss by the New York Rangers hockey team:
"Why are the Rangers like the Titanic? They look great until they hit the ice."
Found in The Village Voice (New York) sports column "Jockbeat" concerning a season opening loss by the New York Rangers hockey team:
"Why are the Rangers like the Titanic? They look great until they hit the ice."
October 15, 2002
Clarification - Jack's Vote For a Beautiful Experiment
- Neil Bartlett's Synthesis of XePtF6 in 1962
In a post I made [9/27/2002 1:37:10 PM | Jack Schwartz] I stated information that needs clarification.
Jack wrote:
Professor Neil Bartlett's synthesis of xenon platinum hexafluoride XePtF6 is beautiful to me for many reasons.
------ [ big snip ] ------
And Jack continues:
"Dr. Erickson described the biggest problem faced by Professor Bartlett for synthesis of XePtF6 was finding a material to make a container for the experiment.
Glass cannot be used. I've seen first hand that fluorine rapidly attacks glass, a sodium silicate, forming gaseous silicon hexafluoride SiF6. I don't recall what material was finally used by Dr. Bartlett for a container - maybe platinum Pt? - but once a suitable container was constructed the experiment to make XePtF6 was done in a straightforward fashion and reported in the literature. And a whole new field of chemistry opened up in "noble gas" compound synthesis that continues to this day."
----------------
OK people - I am human! Either my memory failed me or I heard an apocryphal version of events. Anyhow, a thorough summary of noble-gas chemistry in the 40 years since Dr. Bartlett's synthesis of XePtF6 appears in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News http://pubs.acs.org/isubscribe/journals/cen/80/i40/print/8040sci1.html?emFrom=emLogin . In the article I find clarification of two misunderstandings on my part.
[From Jack: American Chemical Society Member ID may be needed - in the event access is denied, I am posting a copy of the article to the Jack in Oklahoma list Files section http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JackinOklahoma/files/. An automatic message was sent to the list announcing the article addition to Jack in Oklahoma Files.
Clarification Items:
1) Rather than reacting fluorine gas with xenon, Dr. Bartlett reacted gaseous platinum hexafluoride PtF6 with xenon Xe gas to form XePtF6 - Note: research on composition of multi-product mixture continues.
2) The container was glass (sodium silicate glass) and quartz (pure silica glass) ... "he [Professor Bartlett, at University of British Columbia] had assembled a glass and quartz apparatus in which the two gases were separated by a fragile glass seal. At about 6:45 PM [on March 23, 1962], he broke the seal and observed an immediate reaction as the deep red PtF6 gas mixed with the colorless xenon gas and a yellow-orange solid precipitated."
After reading about this ingenious experimental apparatus and experimental technique, the beauty of the experiment stands out even more for me!
- Neil Bartlett's Synthesis of XePtF6 in 1962
In a post I made [9/27/2002 1:37:10 PM | Jack Schwartz] I stated information that needs clarification.
Jack wrote:
Professor Neil Bartlett's synthesis of xenon platinum hexafluoride XePtF6 is beautiful to me for many reasons.
------ [ big snip ] ------
And Jack continues:
"Dr. Erickson described the biggest problem faced by Professor Bartlett for synthesis of XePtF6 was finding a material to make a container for the experiment.
Glass cannot be used. I've seen first hand that fluorine rapidly attacks glass, a sodium silicate, forming gaseous silicon hexafluoride SiF6. I don't recall what material was finally used by Dr. Bartlett for a container - maybe platinum Pt? - but once a suitable container was constructed the experiment to make XePtF6 was done in a straightforward fashion and reported in the literature. And a whole new field of chemistry opened up in "noble gas" compound synthesis that continues to this day."
----------------
OK people - I am human! Either my memory failed me or I heard an apocryphal version of events. Anyhow, a thorough summary of noble-gas chemistry in the 40 years since Dr. Bartlett's synthesis of XePtF6 appears in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News http://pubs.acs.org/isubscribe/journals/cen/80/i40/print/8040sci1.html?emFrom=emLogin . In the article I find clarification of two misunderstandings on my part.
[From Jack: American Chemical Society Member ID may be needed - in the event access is denied, I am posting a copy of the article to the Jack in Oklahoma list Files section http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JackinOklahoma/files/. An automatic message was sent to the list announcing the article addition to Jack in Oklahoma Files.
Clarification Items:
1) Rather than reacting fluorine gas with xenon, Dr. Bartlett reacted gaseous platinum hexafluoride PtF6 with xenon Xe gas to form XePtF6 - Note: research on composition of multi-product mixture continues.
2) The container was glass (sodium silicate glass) and quartz (pure silica glass) ... "he [Professor Bartlett, at University of British Columbia] had assembled a glass and quartz apparatus in which the two gases were separated by a fragile glass seal. At about 6:45 PM [on March 23, 1962], he broke the seal and observed an immediate reaction as the deep red PtF6 gas mixed with the colorless xenon gas and a yellow-orange solid precipitated."
After reading about this ingenious experimental apparatus and experimental technique, the beauty of the experiment stands out even more for me!
October 14, 2002
Women don't want to be bombarded with online porn ... do they?
I got a telephone call from Barbara last night and she is home safely. But I am disturbed to hear she is upset by finding on the order of 150 porn e-mail messages in her e-mail inbox - and about 50 additional spam messages of all kinds - after her eight day trip to Oklahoma. :-(
Barbara's spam increased dramatically after her @qwest.com server went out of business and she changed her e-mail address to the @msn.com server. Holy Cow! All of a sudden she is bombarded by spam! As a possible remedy, she looked at SpamKiller software I use - but it is not available for Mac. So she is home pondering her options. Before she went home, we didn't come up with certain possibilities in a quick Web search for Mac spam killing software. Maybe some of the Jack in Oklahoma blog readers have ideas or knowledge that can help?
Meanwhile, Barbara's dilemma makes this article in today's DWWorld.de (Deutsche Welle German radio news website) have interest for me.
No Cyber-Porn Please, We’re Women.
Women don't want to be bombarded with online porn ... do they?
http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1446_A_651693_1_A,00.html
"With its new .frau domain, a German firm is striving to save women from porn and sexual harassment on the Internet.
You know how it is. You log on to your Web-based email account. You must be popular -- 20 new messages!
But there's not a single witty one-liner from your best friend, no reply from your current love interest. No, every email is inviting you to visit a new porn site, offering you cut-price Viagra or claiming to be able to erase your credit card debt.
A two-woman team in southwestern Germany is now attempting to change all that. Susann Ricke und Dagmar Pálsson of Exist@, a private company in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, have joined forces on a project called Fraude, which offers women the chance to get online without feeling sexually harassed or plagued by pornography."
....... [ article continues] .......
I got a telephone call from Barbara last night and she is home safely. But I am disturbed to hear she is upset by finding on the order of 150 porn e-mail messages in her e-mail inbox - and about 50 additional spam messages of all kinds - after her eight day trip to Oklahoma. :-(
Barbara's spam increased dramatically after her @qwest.com server went out of business and she changed her e-mail address to the @msn.com server. Holy Cow! All of a sudden she is bombarded by spam! As a possible remedy, she looked at SpamKiller software I use - but it is not available for Mac. So she is home pondering her options. Before she went home, we didn't come up with certain possibilities in a quick Web search for Mac spam killing software. Maybe some of the Jack in Oklahoma blog readers have ideas or knowledge that can help?
Meanwhile, Barbara's dilemma makes this article in today's DWWorld.de (Deutsche Welle German radio news website) have interest for me.
No Cyber-Porn Please, We’re Women.
Women don't want to be bombarded with online porn ... do they?
http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1446_A_651693_1_A,00.html
"With its new .frau domain, a German firm is striving to save women from porn and sexual harassment on the Internet.
You know how it is. You log on to your Web-based email account. You must be popular -- 20 new messages!
But there's not a single witty one-liner from your best friend, no reply from your current love interest. No, every email is inviting you to visit a new porn site, offering you cut-price Viagra or claiming to be able to erase your credit card debt.
A two-woman team in southwestern Germany is now attempting to change all that. Susann Ricke und Dagmar Pálsson of Exist@, a private company in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, have joined forces on a project called Fraude, which offers women the chance to get online without feeling sexually harassed or plagued by pornography."
....... [ article continues] .......
Salon Article - The Homeless Blogger
The homeless blogger
"Kevin Barbieux sleeps in abandoned buildings or shelters -- and writes a daily journal that has made him an Internet celebrity."
As a "new kid on the blogger block" :-), I find this article very interesting. I read though several posts by Kevin Barbieux at his blog named "The Homeless Guy" http://thehomelessguy.blogspot.com/ The reading is captivating and I can see why Kevin is an Internet celebrity. So much so that I am now one of Kevin's fans and plan to regularly read posts at his blog. Kevin's writings gives me some ideas for future posts on my blog. Hmmm. We'll see if some of my ideas from Kevin go anywhere. <8-)
Just as an example post of interest from The Homeless Guy (purely a random choice):
Bleeding Hearts
"I've always had a little problem with the cliche, "Bleeding Hearts." I first heard the phrase when I was a kid, and like most kids, I took the phrase literally - and I agreed. Yes, hearts do bleed. They bleed constantly - that's what they're made for. As a matter of fact, hearts bleed so much that blood has to be constantly pumped back into them. And even more importantly, when hearts stop bleeding, they die."
posted by kevin @ Thursday, October 10, 2002 Comment (26)
The homeless blogger
"Kevin Barbieux sleeps in abandoned buildings or shelters -- and writes a daily journal that has made him an Internet celebrity."
As a "new kid on the blogger block" :-), I find this article very interesting. I read though several posts by Kevin Barbieux at his blog named "The Homeless Guy" http://thehomelessguy.blogspot.com/ The reading is captivating and I can see why Kevin is an Internet celebrity. So much so that I am now one of Kevin's fans and plan to regularly read posts at his blog. Kevin's writings gives me some ideas for future posts on my blog. Hmmm. We'll see if some of my ideas from Kevin go anywhere. <8-)
Just as an example post of interest from The Homeless Guy (purely a random choice):
Bleeding Hearts
"I've always had a little problem with the cliche, "Bleeding Hearts." I first heard the phrase when I was a kid, and like most kids, I took the phrase literally - and I agreed. Yes, hearts do bleed. They bleed constantly - that's what they're made for. As a matter of fact, hearts bleed so much that blood has to be constantly pumped back into them. And even more importantly, when hearts stop bleeding, they die."
posted by kevin @ Thursday, October 10, 2002 Comment (26)
Digital Media Poem - Vniverse
On reading reviews for the poet Stephanie Strickland, I've discovered a poetry medium called "Digital Media Poetry." It is all new to me, but I am intrigued by sampling Strickland's digital media poem "Vniverse" http://vniverse.com [click on Enter]
Note: An up-to-date version of Shockwave is needed; the download link is given.
[After clicking on Enter, a starry night sky shows. Move cursor around to see constellations]
Now move cursor to a specific star and click; Example: click on a star at far upper left for which Ursa Major and Ursa Minor constellations are on view with verse:
---------------------------
hollow
88
And in its hollow live the bears - a world
tree closes. Major
and Minor they circle
the hole,
[click second time on star, more verse appears]
observed
at the Gr( )ch
meridian
a bee lives 28 days, that vaginal cadence,
nose swollen in honey.
The tree rings itself with another ring each year
and in its hollow
a world tree closes, Major
and Minor, they circle the hole,
dipping honey from the hollow
at the tilted top
of the northern world Polaris, star at the very end
of the Little Bear's tale.
To know
there is a pole, a polar axis to the earth,
---------------------------
Comment by Jack: To fully explore all the possibilities of the digital media poem Vniverse, click on the "How to" page link at the Vniverse home page. I have a "thrilled" feeling to see this means of utilizing computer interactive capabilities for expression of poetry.
On reading reviews for the poet Stephanie Strickland, I've discovered a poetry medium called "Digital Media Poetry." It is all new to me, but I am intrigued by sampling Strickland's digital media poem "Vniverse" http://vniverse.com [click on Enter]
Note: An up-to-date version of Shockwave is needed; the download link is given.
[After clicking on Enter, a starry night sky shows. Move cursor around to see constellations]
Now move cursor to a specific star and click; Example: click on a star at far upper left for which Ursa Major and Ursa Minor constellations are on view with verse:
---------------------------
hollow
88
And in its hollow live the bears - a world
tree closes. Major
and Minor they circle
the hole,
[click second time on star, more verse appears]
observed
at the Gr( )ch
meridian
a bee lives 28 days, that vaginal cadence,
nose swollen in honey.
The tree rings itself with another ring each year
and in its hollow
a world tree closes, Major
and Minor, they circle the hole,
dipping honey from the hollow
at the tilted top
of the northern world Polaris, star at the very end
of the Little Bear's tale.
To know
there is a pole, a polar axis to the earth,
---------------------------
Comment by Jack: To fully explore all the possibilities of the digital media poem Vniverse, click on the "How to" page link at the Vniverse home page. I have a "thrilled" feeling to see this means of utilizing computer interactive capabilities for expression of poetry.
October 12, 2002
Evolving Discussion - Does the Internet Enhance School Cheating?
In a New York Times Magazine article today by William Speed Weed entitled "Phony Science" http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/13/magazine/13QUESTIONS.html, I find an opinion expressed about the Internet and potential fraud in scientific research that, although beyond the arena of school cheating, I think adds a useful viewpoint to the topic.
This comes in an interview of theoretical physicist Paul Ginsparg, recent winner of a MacArthur grant. He is interviewed primarily about the finding of a panel of experts that another physicist, J. Hendrik Schön, had committed fraud at Bell Labs.
In the interview, Ginsparg is asked:
Question: "You won your award for creating arXiv, which distributes scientific papers before publication. If that sort of system had been more pervasive, could it have prevented Schön from publishing his fraud? "
Answer: "Other scientists might have found him out.
The first reaction people have to a system like arXiv is the insinuation that my kind of open system makes scientific misconduct more likely by disintermediating the editorial process. But to the contrary, it makes it less likely because you have so many more people looking over it. If there were a better user interface and you could have brought up all the articles simultaneously, the discovery of the problems might have been expedited, and this poor guy might have been saved from himself. "
My own experience supports Ginsparg's opinion. In the later years of my career as a chemist and chemical engineer, starting roughly in the mid-eighties, the paradigm for publishing technical reports in my engineering group shifted towards quick publication by e-mail (a company Intranet) versus a long process of drafting, typing and supervisor review before publication.
The new e-mail publishing method did bring quick review and questions from a large reading audience that quickly rooted out weaknesses in the experimental work, weaknesses in the discussion and conclusions, etc. And in turn, I felt the need to be extra careful in "having my ducks in a row" in my experimental procedures, my data analysis, my data accuracy, etc., for the experimental work being reported - even more so than the case when my research supervisor was the main person to review my work.
In summary, publishing on the company e-mail Intranet for my case was roughly equivalent to publication using Ginsparg's arXiv on the Internet. And I concur with Ginsparg that fraud, cheating, carelessness, etc., is less likely compared to traditional formal publication with limited supervisor and/or insular peer review.
In a New York Times Magazine article today by William Speed Weed entitled "Phony Science" http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/13/magazine/13QUESTIONS.html, I find an opinion expressed about the Internet and potential fraud in scientific research that, although beyond the arena of school cheating, I think adds a useful viewpoint to the topic.
This comes in an interview of theoretical physicist Paul Ginsparg, recent winner of a MacArthur grant. He is interviewed primarily about the finding of a panel of experts that another physicist, J. Hendrik Schön, had committed fraud at Bell Labs.
In the interview, Ginsparg is asked:
Question: "You won your award for creating arXiv, which distributes scientific papers before publication. If that sort of system had been more pervasive, could it have prevented Schön from publishing his fraud? "
Answer: "Other scientists might have found him out.
The first reaction people have to a system like arXiv is the insinuation that my kind of open system makes scientific misconduct more likely by disintermediating the editorial process. But to the contrary, it makes it less likely because you have so many more people looking over it. If there were a better user interface and you could have brought up all the articles simultaneously, the discovery of the problems might have been expedited, and this poor guy might have been saved from himself. "
My own experience supports Ginsparg's opinion. In the later years of my career as a chemist and chemical engineer, starting roughly in the mid-eighties, the paradigm for publishing technical reports in my engineering group shifted towards quick publication by e-mail (a company Intranet) versus a long process of drafting, typing and supervisor review before publication.
The new e-mail publishing method did bring quick review and questions from a large reading audience that quickly rooted out weaknesses in the experimental work, weaknesses in the discussion and conclusions, etc. And in turn, I felt the need to be extra careful in "having my ducks in a row" in my experimental procedures, my data analysis, my data accuracy, etc., for the experimental work being reported - even more so than the case when my research supervisor was the main person to review my work.
In summary, publishing on the company e-mail Intranet for my case was roughly equivalent to publication using Ginsparg's arXiv on the Internet. And I concur with Ginsparg that fraud, cheating, carelessness, etc., is less likely compared to traditional formal publication with limited supervisor and/or insular peer review.
October 11, 2002
Brush Up on Your Hebrew, Arabic, or even Ancient Sumerian
I am reading Moment magazine online this morning even though I have the print copy on my shelves. That is a practice I find handy lately. Sometimes I am in the mood to read online - sometimes I am in the mood to read hard copy. Go Figure.
Anyway, this item catches my interest. If you are traveling to Israel or the Arab world, or you are just interested in some language exercise, you can brush up on your Hebrew, Arabic, or even Ancient Sumerian by going to website links found at:
http://www.mideastweb.org/LangLinks.html
For example http://foundationstone.com.au/ is a "Learn Hebrew for Free" website named Foundation Stone. "FoundationStone is a free [downloadable] application and support materials designed to allow the most efficient learning of its Hebrew vocabulary."
I am reading Moment magazine online this morning even though I have the print copy on my shelves. That is a practice I find handy lately. Sometimes I am in the mood to read online - sometimes I am in the mood to read hard copy. Go Figure.
Anyway, this item catches my interest. If you are traveling to Israel or the Arab world, or you are just interested in some language exercise, you can brush up on your Hebrew, Arabic, or even Ancient Sumerian by going to website links found at:
http://www.mideastweb.org/LangLinks.html
For example http://foundationstone.com.au/ is a "Learn Hebrew for Free" website named Foundation Stone. "FoundationStone is a free [downloadable] application and support materials designed to allow the most efficient learning of its Hebrew vocabulary."
October 10, 2002
Evolving Discussion - Does the Internet Enhance School Cheating?
Doing Web surfing on the topic "Ahab", I came across a site for purchasing term papers, picking term paper topics, etc. http://www.fastpapers.com/
I've always felt I am roaming off my turf interpreting literary classics such as Melville's Moby Dick, so seeing the Fastpapers.com website makes me wonder if temptation would get the best of me if I had a term paper to write about Moby Dick. I don't know. But probably not. For one thing I am cheap. :-) The option I choose just for illustration costs $59.70 for a six-page term paper plus transmittal/shipping costs. And even if I shelled out the money, my sense of propriety makes me feel that putting the paper in my own words is called for. And Gee Whiz! - If I am going to rewrite the paper, isn't it simpler just to research and write my own paper? Also the thought crosses my mind - Who says the paper is any good in the first place? But I guess Fastpapers.com aims for the student that hands in the paper "as is" with no qualms.
As a closing observation, I notice the workings of the website are enticing. One enters the desired topic - [Ahab], sees a list of term paper topics. One is only a few keystrokes and a credit card number away from downloading a term paper. For example:
Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick' vs. William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'
[ Click here to purchase this paper ]
[ Click here to see full description] -->
"A 6 page paper in which the writer argues that through mad antics toward ‘the revenge plot,' both Ahab and Hamlet serve to bring the action in the two tragedies to their inevitable conclusions. In all aspects the characters' motivations are different. Ahab's madness is more focused and not within Ahab's control--he is unable to see beyond it. Hamlet's madness is feigned. The characters' decision-making abilities are also in contrast to each other, and their view of God, the Devil and responsibility to same also come from a divergent slant on the moralistic ideals behind their given situations. Bibliography lists 7 sources."
Filename: Mobyham.wps
Same day delivery available!
[ Click here to purchase this paper ] -->
Paper Information
Paper info:
Title: "Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick' vs. William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'"
Filename: Mobyham.wps
Pages: 6
Cost Per Page: $9.95
Subtotal: $59.70
Following this is a form for entering customer information and credit card number. The paper can be received by FAX ($3.98 per page), by E-mail ($3.98 per page) or by Federal Express ($19.98 flat rate). To those so inclined, it's just money. ;-)
Doing Web surfing on the topic "Ahab", I came across a site for purchasing term papers, picking term paper topics, etc. http://www.fastpapers.com/
I've always felt I am roaming off my turf interpreting literary classics such as Melville's Moby Dick, so seeing the Fastpapers.com website makes me wonder if temptation would get the best of me if I had a term paper to write about Moby Dick. I don't know. But probably not. For one thing I am cheap. :-) The option I choose just for illustration costs $59.70 for a six-page term paper plus transmittal/shipping costs. And even if I shelled out the money, my sense of propriety makes me feel that putting the paper in my own words is called for. And Gee Whiz! - If I am going to rewrite the paper, isn't it simpler just to research and write my own paper? Also the thought crosses my mind - Who says the paper is any good in the first place? But I guess Fastpapers.com aims for the student that hands in the paper "as is" with no qualms.
As a closing observation, I notice the workings of the website are enticing. One enters the desired topic - [Ahab], sees a list of term paper topics. One is only a few keystrokes and a credit card number away from downloading a term paper. For example:
Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick' vs. William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'
[ Click here to purchase this paper ]
[ Click here to see full description] -->
"A 6 page paper in which the writer argues that through mad antics toward ‘the revenge plot,' both Ahab and Hamlet serve to bring the action in the two tragedies to their inevitable conclusions. In all aspects the characters' motivations are different. Ahab's madness is more focused and not within Ahab's control--he is unable to see beyond it. Hamlet's madness is feigned. The characters' decision-making abilities are also in contrast to each other, and their view of God, the Devil and responsibility to same also come from a divergent slant on the moralistic ideals behind their given situations. Bibliography lists 7 sources."
Filename: Mobyham.wps
Same day delivery available!
[ Click here to purchase this paper ] -->
Paper Information
Paper info:
Title: "Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick' vs. William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'"
Filename: Mobyham.wps
Pages: 6
Cost Per Page: $9.95
Subtotal: $59.70
Following this is a form for entering customer information and credit card number. The paper can be received by FAX ($3.98 per page), by E-mail ($3.98 per page) or by Federal Express ($19.98 flat rate). To those so inclined, it's just money. ;-)
October 09, 2002
Chemists from Three Continents Share
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Deutsche Welle (German Radio News Service)
English Service News
09.10.2002, 16:00 UTC
[In daily E-mail Deutsche Welle Newsletter sent to Jack]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to John Fenn of the United States, Koichi Tanaka of Japan and Kurt Wuethrich of Switzerland. They will share the prize for work on proteins which has led to increased understanding of the processes of life, the academy said in its citation.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Deutsche Welle (German Radio News Service)
English Service News
09.10.2002, 16:00 UTC
[In daily E-mail Deutsche Welle Newsletter sent to Jack]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to John Fenn of the United States, Koichi Tanaka of Japan and Kurt Wuethrich of Switzerland. They will share the prize for work on proteins which has led to increased understanding of the processes of life, the academy said in its citation.
Musk Oxen Fossil Finds Near My Hometown, Weatherford, Oklahoma
One of my best friends, Tom Young of Granger, Wyoming, called me two days ago and we discussed many matters. A very satisfying part of the discussion for me concerned a newspaper article I sent "Young Tom" (Tom's nickname - he is 65 years young. :)). Young Tom retired from FMC Corporation in 1994 at about the same time I retired from FMC. He is two years my senior.
Now the good part. The article I sent Young Tom describes finds of musk oxen fossils in Oklahoma Pleistocene deposits. I sent the article because I know that Young Tom participates in paleontological digs in Wyoming sponsored by the University of Wyoming. On the telephone, Young Tom told me the recent Wyoming digs encounter musk oxen fossils. Remembering the article I sent, Young Tom told his professor about musk oxen fossils found in Oklahoma. Whoops! The professor said "No", there are no finds of musk oxen in Oklahoma.
So on a four-day break from the dig, Tom found the article and took it back to show the professor. Of course, the professor had to do some "back peddling." ;-) It made me feel good that I took time to send the article to Tom. My doing so now means that University of Wyoming paleontology students will receive more accurate information.
When I started writing this post, I decided to do a little Web surfing as I usually do for background information. Wow, I found a paper for a dig finding musk oxen fossils only 12 kilometers south of my hometown of Weatherford, Oklahoma. The digging was done by Southwestern Oklahoma State University students, including one student I know - Dustin Devine - who has since gone to veterinary school. The relatively short student research paper is:
Some Late Pleistocene Fossils from Washita Local Fauna
Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science Volume 77, 1997, pg. 113
by Henry Kirkland, Jr., Micheal Davis, Janet Wood, Dustin Devine, and Kyle Giblet
Department of Biology,
Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Weatherford, OK 73096
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/OAS/oas_htm_files/v77/p113_115nf.html
Based on radiocarbon dating, samples taken included some that "yielded an average date of 16,350±190 years before present (YBP)."
One of my best friends, Tom Young of Granger, Wyoming, called me two days ago and we discussed many matters. A very satisfying part of the discussion for me concerned a newspaper article I sent "Young Tom" (Tom's nickname - he is 65 years young. :)). Young Tom retired from FMC Corporation in 1994 at about the same time I retired from FMC. He is two years my senior.
Now the good part. The article I sent Young Tom describes finds of musk oxen fossils in Oklahoma Pleistocene deposits. I sent the article because I know that Young Tom participates in paleontological digs in Wyoming sponsored by the University of Wyoming. On the telephone, Young Tom told me the recent Wyoming digs encounter musk oxen fossils. Remembering the article I sent, Young Tom told his professor about musk oxen fossils found in Oklahoma. Whoops! The professor said "No", there are no finds of musk oxen in Oklahoma.
So on a four-day break from the dig, Tom found the article and took it back to show the professor. Of course, the professor had to do some "back peddling." ;-) It made me feel good that I took time to send the article to Tom. My doing so now means that University of Wyoming paleontology students will receive more accurate information.
When I started writing this post, I decided to do a little Web surfing as I usually do for background information. Wow, I found a paper for a dig finding musk oxen fossils only 12 kilometers south of my hometown of Weatherford, Oklahoma. The digging was done by Southwestern Oklahoma State University students, including one student I know - Dustin Devine - who has since gone to veterinary school. The relatively short student research paper is:
Some Late Pleistocene Fossils from Washita Local Fauna
Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science Volume 77, 1997, pg. 113
by Henry Kirkland, Jr., Micheal Davis, Janet Wood, Dustin Devine, and Kyle Giblet
Department of Biology,
Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Weatherford, OK 73096
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/OAS/oas_htm_files/v77/p113_115nf.html
Based on radiocarbon dating, samples taken included some that "yielded an average date of 16,350±190 years before present (YBP)."
Toward a Synthesis of the Newtonian and Darwinian Worldviews
by John Harte, Physics Today.org, October 2002
I find this article by John Harte, recipient of the American Physical Society's 2001 Leo Szilard Award, stimulating and timely.If I were starting out again as the young scientist I was 40 years ago :-), I would love to be entering the fields of study described in the article.
I think the article byline speaks for itself concerning the significance of the subject matter.
"Physicists seek simplicity in universal laws. Ecologists revel in complex interdependencies. A sustainable future for our planet will probably require a look at life from both sides."
At the start of the talk are two quotes that stimulate further reading.
"Two quotes aptly frame the discussion. The first is from the 1948 book Sand County Almanac, by the ecologist and conservationist Aldo Leopold:
In terms of conventional physics, the grouse represents only a millionth of either the mass or the energy of an acre. Yet, subtract the grouse and the whole thing is dead.
The other quote is from the 1940 book Wind, Sand and Stars, by the aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.
Leopold speaks for ecologists and their craft, for the intellectual tradition that blossomed with Darwin's remarkable insights into evolution and natural history. Saint-Exupéry, by contrast, eloquently describes the sword that physicists from Galileo and Newton onward have sought to extricate from the stone of Nature."
To read the full article, go to:
http://www.aip.org/pt/vol-55/iss-10/p29.html
-----
John Harte is a professor in the energy and resources group and in the division of ecosystem sciences at the University of California, Berkeley
by John Harte, Physics Today.org, October 2002
I find this article by John Harte, recipient of the American Physical Society's 2001 Leo Szilard Award, stimulating and timely.If I were starting out again as the young scientist I was 40 years ago :-), I would love to be entering the fields of study described in the article.
I think the article byline speaks for itself concerning the significance of the subject matter.
"Physicists seek simplicity in universal laws. Ecologists revel in complex interdependencies. A sustainable future for our planet will probably require a look at life from both sides."
At the start of the talk are two quotes that stimulate further reading.
"Two quotes aptly frame the discussion. The first is from the 1948 book Sand County Almanac, by the ecologist and conservationist Aldo Leopold:
In terms of conventional physics, the grouse represents only a millionth of either the mass or the energy of an acre. Yet, subtract the grouse and the whole thing is dead.
The other quote is from the 1940 book Wind, Sand and Stars, by the aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.
Leopold speaks for ecologists and their craft, for the intellectual tradition that blossomed with Darwin's remarkable insights into evolution and natural history. Saint-Exupéry, by contrast, eloquently describes the sword that physicists from Galileo and Newton onward have sought to extricate from the stone of Nature."
To read the full article, go to:
http://www.aip.org/pt/vol-55/iss-10/p29.html
-----
John Harte is a professor in the energy and resources group and in the division of ecosystem sciences at the University of California, Berkeley
October 08, 2002
Periodic Table of the Elephants
Various presentations of the Periodic Table of the Elements have been a topic in previous Jack in Oklahoma blog posts. Now comes "The Periodic Table of the Elephants." This is for real, people! :-)
It seems that Washington, D.C., is promoting tourism by displaying "party animals" http://www.partyanimalsdc.org/index.html throughout the city. The American Chemical Society (ACS) headquarters is located in Washington, D.C. and the ACS is displaying a "party animal" elephant named "The Periodic Table of the Elephants." The elephant is a creation of students at the Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts and is illustrated with pictures of smaller elephants, each representing a different chemical element.
For the complete story and pictures, go to:
http://www.chemcenter.org/portal/Chemistry?PID=elephant.html
Various presentations of the Periodic Table of the Elements have been a topic in previous Jack in Oklahoma blog posts. Now comes "The Periodic Table of the Elephants." This is for real, people! :-)
It seems that Washington, D.C., is promoting tourism by displaying "party animals" http://www.partyanimalsdc.org/index.html throughout the city. The American Chemical Society (ACS) headquarters is located in Washington, D.C. and the ACS is displaying a "party animal" elephant named "The Periodic Table of the Elephants." The elephant is a creation of students at the Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts and is illustrated with pictures of smaller elephants, each representing a different chemical element.
For the complete story and pictures, go to:
http://www.chemcenter.org/portal/Chemistry?PID=elephant.html
October 07, 2002
Cyber Tour of The Residenz Palace in Munich
The Residenz Palace was home to the Bavarian rulers between 1385 and 1918
A fine cyber tour of a European palace, the Residenz Palace for Bavarian rulers in Munich, is found at:
http://www.myk.mcmail.com/munchen/city_of_munich/altstadt/residenz/
Some parts of the Residenz Palace were virtually destroyed during World War II, so a cyber tour of the palace is the only way left for a thoroughgoing view of the palace in all its splendor.
The Residenz Palace was home to the Bavarian rulers between 1385 and 1918
A fine cyber tour of a European palace, the Residenz Palace for Bavarian rulers in Munich, is found at:
http://www.myk.mcmail.com/munchen/city_of_munich/altstadt/residenz/
Some parts of the Residenz Palace were virtually destroyed during World War II, so a cyber tour of the palace is the only way left for a thoroughgoing view of the palace in all its splendor.
October 06, 2002
Oktoberfest - Almost 6 Million Litres of Beer Consumed
Being a German history buff, I am delighted to first learn the background of Oktoberfest - "... first held to celebrate the wedding in 1810 of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princes Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen." - and to learn the quantity of beer consumed during Oktoberfest 2002 - a staggering number to me. 8-)
-----
Deutsche Welle (German Radio News Service)
English Service News
October, 06th, 2002, 16:00 UTC
[Received by Jack in daily e-mail news summary from Deutsche Welle]
-----------------------
Beer lovers gulp last litres as Oktoberfest ends
Revellers at Munich's Oktoberfest, the world's biggest beer festival, geared up for massive hangovers on Sunday as the annual drinking event came to a close. Beer enthusiasts quaffed almost 6 million litres of strong Bavarian beer during the 16-day festival, which is 18 percent more than last year, when the atmosphere was subdued in reaction to the September 11 attacks on the United States.
More than 6 million visitors thronged the 14 tents, some as large as football fields for the festival, a rise of seven percent from last year. The Oktoberfest was first held to celebrate the wedding in 1810 of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princes Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.
Being a German history buff, I am delighted to first learn the background of Oktoberfest - "... first held to celebrate the wedding in 1810 of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princes Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen." - and to learn the quantity of beer consumed during Oktoberfest 2002 - a staggering number to me. 8-)
-----
Deutsche Welle (German Radio News Service)
English Service News
October, 06th, 2002, 16:00 UTC
[Received by Jack in daily e-mail news summary from Deutsche Welle]
-----------------------
Beer lovers gulp last litres as Oktoberfest ends
Revellers at Munich's Oktoberfest, the world's biggest beer festival, geared up for massive hangovers on Sunday as the annual drinking event came to a close. Beer enthusiasts quaffed almost 6 million litres of strong Bavarian beer during the 16-day festival, which is 18 percent more than last year, when the atmosphere was subdued in reaction to the September 11 attacks on the United States.
More than 6 million visitors thronged the 14 tents, some as large as football fields for the festival, a rise of seven percent from last year. The Oktoberfest was first held to celebrate the wedding in 1810 of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princes Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.
October 05, 2002
Now I'll Know How a Test Rat Feels :-)
A Weatherford attraction for the second year is a cornfield maze, called the Corn MAiZE.
There is a picture and description of the Corn MAiZE at:
http://www.pbarfarms.com/activities.php
"The MAiZE - intricate networks of twists and turns carved into a 12-acre cornfield.
The 9-foot-high puzzle contains more than 95 decision points, 300,000 corn stalks and 3.5 miles of twists and turns. Most maze-goers will require about one hour to discover the one exit, though the correct pathway can be walked perfectly in only 20 minutes."
To tell the truth, I've been "chicken" to try it myself mostly for fear of embarrassment if I can't find my way out. (:-( I don't want to feel like a "dumb rat" lost in a maze. ( Big Grins :))
But Barbara and I are thinking of going through the maze together next week. So I'll give a report how we do. At least if we can't find our way out, the "dumb rat " feeling can be shared. Ho! Ho! (I think :))
Of some interest, the corn maze idea is popular around the country. Barbara mentioned there are one or more corn mazes in the Denver metropolitan area.
A Weatherford attraction for the second year is a cornfield maze, called the Corn MAiZE.
There is a picture and description of the Corn MAiZE at:
http://www.pbarfarms.com/activities.php
"The MAiZE - intricate networks of twists and turns carved into a 12-acre cornfield.
The 9-foot-high puzzle contains more than 95 decision points, 300,000 corn stalks and 3.5 miles of twists and turns. Most maze-goers will require about one hour to discover the one exit, though the correct pathway can be walked perfectly in only 20 minutes."
To tell the truth, I've been "chicken" to try it myself mostly for fear of embarrassment if I can't find my way out. (:-( I don't want to feel like a "dumb rat" lost in a maze. ( Big Grins :))
But Barbara and I are thinking of going through the maze together next week. So I'll give a report how we do. At least if we can't find our way out, the "dumb rat " feeling can be shared. Ho! Ho! (I think :))
Of some interest, the corn maze idea is popular around the country. Barbara mentioned there are one or more corn mazes in the Denver metropolitan area.
October 04, 2002
Go Bulldogs!
My sister Barbara arrived safely today and we are immersed in the weekend of Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU)Homecoming activities. Barbara is a SWOSU alumni with bachelor and master of education degrees from Southwestern. Tonight was the bonfire, pep rally and dance - with a burning in effigy of a University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) football player. 8-)
The SWOSU Bulldogs and the UCO Broncos play the Homecoming football game tomorrow at 2 p.m. The Homecoming parade is at 10 a.m. followed by other ceremonies and tailgate parties before the game.
So to repeat - "Go Bulldogs!" "Beat the Broncos!"
Next weekend is the Weatherford High School Classes of 1955 to 1959 Reunion - which includes my Class of 1956 and Barbara's Class of 1958! Hey, are we having fun yet? You bet we are! :-) :-)
My sister Barbara arrived safely today and we are immersed in the weekend of Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU)Homecoming activities. Barbara is a SWOSU alumni with bachelor and master of education degrees from Southwestern. Tonight was the bonfire, pep rally and dance - with a burning in effigy of a University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) football player. 8-)
The SWOSU Bulldogs and the UCO Broncos play the Homecoming football game tomorrow at 2 p.m. The Homecoming parade is at 10 a.m. followed by other ceremonies and tailgate parties before the game.
So to repeat - "Go Bulldogs!" "Beat the Broncos!"
Next weekend is the Weatherford High School Classes of 1955 to 1959 Reunion - which includes my Class of 1956 and Barbara's Class of 1958! Hey, are we having fun yet? You bet we are! :-) :-)
October 03, 2002
I Joined an Internet Weight Loss Group
My weight loss program is getting in high gear! I've started discarding most of the syrup from canned fruit thanks to supportive encouragement from my friends. I'm sticking close to the low carbohydrate diet recommended by my doctor. My exercise is going good with a modest increase in my daily walking.
Then today I receive an invitation to join a newly formed Internet weight loss group - Jewishweightloss@yahoogroups.com. It is a spinoff from the Jewish Diabetes Yahoo list.
So, I joined.
I don't know yet what it entails or how it will work out. But it seems like it is worth a try.
My weight loss program is getting in high gear! I've started discarding most of the syrup from canned fruit thanks to supportive encouragement from my friends. I'm sticking close to the low carbohydrate diet recommended by my doctor. My exercise is going good with a modest increase in my daily walking.
Then today I receive an invitation to join a newly formed Internet weight loss group - Jewishweightloss@yahoogroups.com. It is a spinoff from the Jewish Diabetes Yahoo list.
So, I joined.
I don't know yet what it entails or how it will work out. But it seems like it is worth a try.
Duels for Resolving Disputes
Today's news has an item that makes me think of a duel that resolved a dispute between the Eastern Shoshone Indians and the Crow Indians in the 19th Century.
----- news item -----
Oct. 3, 2002 | BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- An Iraqi vice president offered a unique solution to the U.S.-Iraq standoff: a duel between George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein.
---------------------------
The great Eastern Shoshone Chief - Chief Washakie - when he was young, settled a dispute with the Crow Indians by dueling a Crow Chief on top of a butte now named Crowheart Butte. The butte is on the present-day Wind River Reservation north of Riverton, Wyoming. The name comes from the fact that Washakie won the duel and cut out the heart of the Crow Chief.
A nice picture of Crowheart Butte taken in February 2002 is at:
http://www.starfleet.com/liem/photos/photography/tn/plateau.jpg.html
The Wind River Reservation, shared by the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho is beautiful. It is bordered on the west by the spectacular Continental Divide ridge of the Wind River Mountains. I have a close friend who is Arapaho. We did some of my most memorable backpack trips on Wind River Reservation land. Because I am a "trespasser" :-) on Indian land, I had to pay $25 for a dated permit to hike. I was checked once by an Indian wilderness land ranger. I sure felt assured to have my Arapaho friend with me. ;-)
Today's news has an item that makes me think of a duel that resolved a dispute between the Eastern Shoshone Indians and the Crow Indians in the 19th Century.
----- news item -----
Oct. 3, 2002 | BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- An Iraqi vice president offered a unique solution to the U.S.-Iraq standoff: a duel between George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein.
---------------------------
The great Eastern Shoshone Chief - Chief Washakie - when he was young, settled a dispute with the Crow Indians by dueling a Crow Chief on top of a butte now named Crowheart Butte. The butte is on the present-day Wind River Reservation north of Riverton, Wyoming. The name comes from the fact that Washakie won the duel and cut out the heart of the Crow Chief.
A nice picture of Crowheart Butte taken in February 2002 is at:
http://www.starfleet.com/liem/photos/photography/tn/plateau.jpg.html
The Wind River Reservation, shared by the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho is beautiful. It is bordered on the west by the spectacular Continental Divide ridge of the Wind River Mountains. I have a close friend who is Arapaho. We did some of my most memorable backpack trips on Wind River Reservation land. Because I am a "trespasser" :-) on Indian land, I had to pay $25 for a dated permit to hike. I was checked once by an Indian wilderness land ranger. I sure felt assured to have my Arapaho friend with me. ;-)
October 01, 2002
"You Can Tell The Type of Man by His Truck"
http://www.geocities.com/jackinwestok/Jack_and_His_Pickup_Truck.html
http://www.geocities.com/jackinwestok/Jack_and_His_Pickup_Truck.html
Sharing Territory With a Cat
Since my neighbor's house burned last December, I take care of the large lawn and I share the territory with a stray black and white cat.
The cat lets me do my thing and he does his thing, but never do our paths cross. The closest the cat allows me is about 10 feet even when I am offering sardines, tuna fish, etc. for food. But it seems quite content to sit and watch while I work. I've never given it a name.
Now the real interesting part for me. In early morning the cat is on the prowl and usually catches at least two birds for breakfast. I don't see it during mid-day. Then in the evening it catches grasshoppers for supper. It is fun to watch as it sneaks around and makes short, playful hops to nab grasshoppers.
This evening I did some Web surfing and found a neat picture called "Curious Cat and Grasshopper" at the P.J. Decorative Stencils website.
http://www.pjstencils.com/200_cat_hopper.html
Hey, that's my buddy!
Since my neighbor's house burned last December, I take care of the large lawn and I share the territory with a stray black and white cat.
The cat lets me do my thing and he does his thing, but never do our paths cross. The closest the cat allows me is about 10 feet even when I am offering sardines, tuna fish, etc. for food. But it seems quite content to sit and watch while I work. I've never given it a name.
Now the real interesting part for me. In early morning the cat is on the prowl and usually catches at least two birds for breakfast. I don't see it during mid-day. Then in the evening it catches grasshoppers for supper. It is fun to watch as it sneaks around and makes short, playful hops to nab grasshoppers.
This evening I did some Web surfing and found a neat picture called "Curious Cat and Grasshopper" at the P.J. Decorative Stencils website.
http://www.pjstencils.com/200_cat_hopper.html
Hey, that's my buddy!
September 30, 2002
Evolving Discussion - Does the Internet Enhance School Cheating?
Surfing for articles about the chemist Neil Bartlett, I came across a website "A Quick Guide to Internet Research" by the author Neil Bartlett, author of the best-selling eBook, "How To Profit From Internet Research" at: http://www.ebsdiscounts.com/irebook.htm
I see at least a tangential relationship to the topic of using the Internet for cheating in information given at the "A Quick Guide to Internet Research" website: http://www.4hb.com/0111nbinternetresearch.html
Mr. Bartlett presents in outline form what he calls the five steps to a research project. I am showing only the major outline headers in this post. In the header, "2. GATHER" there are links I find interesting for systematically filing items found on an Internet search, etc. The links are included with this post. I decided to try the SurfSaver software http://www.surfsaver.com . I have only briefly looked at it. I need more work to figure out if it is any use to me.
I guess it comes to mind for me if a student follows the Internet research methods proposed by Mr. Bartlett, would this be frowned on or praised by some teachers? Can the Bartlett methodology be used in a fashion construed as cheating?
Five Steps to a Research Project.
1. PRE-GATHER:
-
-
-
2. GATHER:
-
-
- ... [Bartlett:] I would like to point out some excellent research tools to assist in your information gathering:
WebZeer - Capture images and other content from Web pages by dragging and dropping http://www.webzeer.com
Copernic - Query multiple search engines on the Web simultaneously. http://www.copernic.com
SurfSaver - Save the facts, figures, news, and research you find on the Web. http://www.surfsaver.com
Webforia - Helps you organize and report your research efforts. http://www.webforia.com
WebWhacker - Create an archive of Web information, including news, articles, statistics, product reviews, Web sites, and more. http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/whacker/whacker.html
3. EVALUATE:
-
-
-
4. ORGANIZE:
-
-
-
5. EVALUATE FINAL PRODUCT:
-
-
-
Surfing for articles about the chemist Neil Bartlett, I came across a website "A Quick Guide to Internet Research" by the author Neil Bartlett, author of the best-selling eBook, "How To Profit From Internet Research" at: http://www.ebsdiscounts.com/irebook.htm
I see at least a tangential relationship to the topic of using the Internet for cheating in information given at the "A Quick Guide to Internet Research" website: http://www.4hb.com/0111nbinternetresearch.html
Mr. Bartlett presents in outline form what he calls the five steps to a research project. I am showing only the major outline headers in this post. In the header, "2. GATHER" there are links I find interesting for systematically filing items found on an Internet search, etc. The links are included with this post. I decided to try the SurfSaver software http://www.surfsaver.com . I have only briefly looked at it. I need more work to figure out if it is any use to me.
I guess it comes to mind for me if a student follows the Internet research methods proposed by Mr. Bartlett, would this be frowned on or praised by some teachers? Can the Bartlett methodology be used in a fashion construed as cheating?
Five Steps to a Research Project.
1. PRE-GATHER:
-
-
-
2. GATHER:
-
-
- ... [Bartlett:] I would like to point out some excellent research tools to assist in your information gathering:
WebZeer - Capture images and other content from Web pages by dragging and dropping http://www.webzeer.com
Copernic - Query multiple search engines on the Web simultaneously. http://www.copernic.com
SurfSaver - Save the facts, figures, news, and research you find on the Web. http://www.surfsaver.com
Webforia - Helps you organize and report your research efforts. http://www.webforia.com
WebWhacker - Create an archive of Web information, including news, articles, statistics, product reviews, Web sites, and more. http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/whacker/whacker.html
3. EVALUATE:
-
-
-
4. ORGANIZE:
-
-
-
5. EVALUATE FINAL PRODUCT:
-
-
-
September 29, 2002
About Old Chemists Like Jack :-)
Old chemists never die... they just stop reacting.
And the blame ;-) for this one goes to www.BadPuns.com
Direct URL:
http://www.badpuns.com/jokes.php?section=oneline&name=old_chemists
Old chemists never die... they just stop reacting.
And the blame ;-) for this one goes to www.BadPuns.com
Direct URL:
http://www.badpuns.com/jokes.php?section=oneline&name=old_chemists
Jack's Wyoming Moose Hunting Memories
It's that time of year in Wyoming. The traditional opening of big game hunting season is October 1, and I am filled with pleasant hunting memories in beautiful Rocky Mountain country - especially the hunts for Wyoming Shiras Moose.
During 1973 - 1994, I drew two moose permits in the lottery and hunted moose almost every year with groups of five or more people - usually with one of the people having the permit and allowed to shoot. We shared the meat.
An adult Shiras Moose is a large animal, typically 1600 pounds on the hoof, and when sighted from a distance appears as a "black spot" standing on a mountainside or standing in or near a creek getting a drink of water - usually at dawn or dusk. Alaska Moose and other breeds are even larger than the Shiras Moose - up to 2000 pounds or more on the hoof.
My moose hunting nostalgia led me to search the Web for moose pictures. I found one that is first-rate for bringing back memories.
http://www.saugus.net/Photos/images/moose.jpg
[link comes by way of Saugus, Massachusetts home page <http://www.saugus.net/ > ]
My closing thought from looking at this picture is the attention paid not to down a moose in a creek - or on an opposite creek bank requiring dragging the moose through water to the loading point. Those mountain creeks contain snow melt water near freezing. It is a miserable prospect if one must get wet with the cold creek water while trying to drag the dead weight of a 3/4-ton animal across a rocky creek bottom. Better to shoot with a camera than with a rifle in this case!
It's that time of year in Wyoming. The traditional opening of big game hunting season is October 1, and I am filled with pleasant hunting memories in beautiful Rocky Mountain country - especially the hunts for Wyoming Shiras Moose.
During 1973 - 1994, I drew two moose permits in the lottery and hunted moose almost every year with groups of five or more people - usually with one of the people having the permit and allowed to shoot. We shared the meat.
An adult Shiras Moose is a large animal, typically 1600 pounds on the hoof, and when sighted from a distance appears as a "black spot" standing on a mountainside or standing in or near a creek getting a drink of water - usually at dawn or dusk. Alaska Moose and other breeds are even larger than the Shiras Moose - up to 2000 pounds or more on the hoof.
My moose hunting nostalgia led me to search the Web for moose pictures. I found one that is first-rate for bringing back memories.
http://www.saugus.net/Photos/images/moose.jpg
[link comes by way of Saugus, Massachusetts home page <http://www.saugus.net/ > ]
My closing thought from looking at this picture is the attention paid not to down a moose in a creek - or on an opposite creek bank requiring dragging the moose through water to the loading point. Those mountain creeks contain snow melt water near freezing. It is a miserable prospect if one must get wet with the cold creek water while trying to drag the dead weight of a 3/4-ton animal across a rocky creek bottom. Better to shoot with a camera than with a rifle in this case!
September 28, 2002
Firehole River - Yellowstone Park
Photographed by Larry Friedman
Firehole River, Yellowstone Park.
Thumbnail Picture at:
http://www.wildernessconcepts.com/art/4803/en/
[Click on enlarge]
Larry Friedman is a "Landsman" of mine from my days in Green River, Wyoming. He is Jewish and comes from Chicago. Larry came to Green River about the same time I did - in 1973 - and his first work there was opening a veterinary clinic.
Larry became so good at doing nature photography that he now does it full time. His picture of the Firehole River in Yellowstone Park is one of my favorites. Larry does an excellent business selling copies of his photographs in the Green River region to businesses, libraries, office buildings, restaurants, etc. And his pictures are for sale on the Web.
Photographed by Larry Friedman
Firehole River, Yellowstone Park.
Thumbnail Picture at:
http://www.wildernessconcepts.com/art/4803/en/
[Click on enlarge]
Larry Friedman is a "Landsman" of mine from my days in Green River, Wyoming. He is Jewish and comes from Chicago. Larry came to Green River about the same time I did - in 1973 - and his first work there was opening a veterinary clinic.
Larry became so good at doing nature photography that he now does it full time. His picture of the Firehole River in Yellowstone Park is one of my favorites. Larry does an excellent business selling copies of his photographs in the Green River region to businesses, libraries, office buildings, restaurants, etc. And his pictures are for sale on the Web.
September 27, 2002
Jack's Vote For a Beautiful Experiment
- Neil Bartlett's Synthesis of XePtF6 in 1962
Professor Neil Bartlett's synthesis of xenon platinum hexafluoride XePtF6 is beautiful to me for many reasons.
First is the timing for me as a chemist. In high school chemistry in 1954, and in undergraduate chemistry classes in 1956 - 1960, I was taught the Periodic Table Group VIII elements, the so-called "noble gases", were totally unreactive. These elemental gases are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon. Then in 1962 a young professor at the University of British Columbia startled the chemistry world by making the first "noble gas" compound - XePtF6
So when I began graduate school chemistry classes in 1963, the view of the "noble gases" being unreactive was gone forever. What a fantastic change for me as a young chemist. And in addition I had a wonderful inorganic chemistry professor in graduate school who made a point of the beauty behind Professor Bartlett's experiment. We learned how Dr. Bartlett followed basic chemical principles and did not let past teachings sway him from his belief that making compounds from "noble gases" was possible. This is among the most important lessons I ever learned for success in my carreer as a scientist and engineer.
As told by my professor, Dr. Erickson, knowing the XePtF6 synthesis was possible just took looking at the table of electonegativties of substances by Dr. Barlett (or anyone else!) to see that fluorine was more electronegative than xenon. It follows by the most basic application of chemical principles that fluorine and xenon are thus capable of entering into compound formation.
Dr. Erickson described the biggest problem faced by Professor Bartlett for synthesis of XePtF6 was finding a material to make a container for the experiment.
Glass cannot be used. I've seen first hand that fluorine rapidly attacks glass, a sodium silicate, forming gaseous silicon hexafluoride SiF6. I don't recall what material was finally used by Dr. Bartlett for a container - maybe platinum Pt? - but once a suitable container was constructed the experiment to make XePtF6 was done in a straightforward fashion and reported in the literature. And a whole new field of chemistry opened up in "noble gas" compound synthesis that continues to this day.
Dr. Bartlett went to the University of California Berkeley in 1967 where he continues research that includes ongoing pursuit of "noble gas" compound synthesis. He is now a professor emeritus.
And Dr. Bartlett has just been honored by The United Kingdom’s Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific academy. "Chemistry professor emeritus Neil Bartlett has won the Davy Medal, a prestigious medal given each year for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry worldwide. Bartlett, who was inducted into the Society in 1973, is being recognized for his research “exploring the highest oxidation limits of the less oxidizable elements, primarily using elemental fluorine.”
See Davy Medal announcement in:
ChemiCal Science and Engineering Newsletter
University of California, Berkeley
Volume 10, Issue 4, August 2002
http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/editor/Publications/newsletter/2002/august2002/royalsociety.html
- Neil Bartlett's Synthesis of XePtF6 in 1962
Professor Neil Bartlett's synthesis of xenon platinum hexafluoride XePtF6 is beautiful to me for many reasons.
First is the timing for me as a chemist. In high school chemistry in 1954, and in undergraduate chemistry classes in 1956 - 1960, I was taught the Periodic Table Group VIII elements, the so-called "noble gases", were totally unreactive. These elemental gases are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon. Then in 1962 a young professor at the University of British Columbia startled the chemistry world by making the first "noble gas" compound - XePtF6
So when I began graduate school chemistry classes in 1963, the view of the "noble gases" being unreactive was gone forever. What a fantastic change for me as a young chemist. And in addition I had a wonderful inorganic chemistry professor in graduate school who made a point of the beauty behind Professor Bartlett's experiment. We learned how Dr. Bartlett followed basic chemical principles and did not let past teachings sway him from his belief that making compounds from "noble gases" was possible. This is among the most important lessons I ever learned for success in my carreer as a scientist and engineer.
As told by my professor, Dr. Erickson, knowing the XePtF6 synthesis was possible just took looking at the table of electonegativties of substances by Dr. Barlett (or anyone else!) to see that fluorine was more electronegative than xenon. It follows by the most basic application of chemical principles that fluorine and xenon are thus capable of entering into compound formation.
Dr. Erickson described the biggest problem faced by Professor Bartlett for synthesis of XePtF6 was finding a material to make a container for the experiment.
Glass cannot be used. I've seen first hand that fluorine rapidly attacks glass, a sodium silicate, forming gaseous silicon hexafluoride SiF6. I don't recall what material was finally used by Dr. Bartlett for a container - maybe platinum Pt? - but once a suitable container was constructed the experiment to make XePtF6 was done in a straightforward fashion and reported in the literature. And a whole new field of chemistry opened up in "noble gas" compound synthesis that continues to this day.
Dr. Bartlett went to the University of California Berkeley in 1967 where he continues research that includes ongoing pursuit of "noble gas" compound synthesis. He is now a professor emeritus.
And Dr. Bartlett has just been honored by The United Kingdom’s Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific academy. "Chemistry professor emeritus Neil Bartlett has won the Davy Medal, a prestigious medal given each year for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry worldwide. Bartlett, who was inducted into the Society in 1973, is being recognized for his research “exploring the highest oxidation limits of the less oxidizable elements, primarily using elemental fluorine.”
See Davy Medal announcement in:
ChemiCal Science and Engineering Newsletter
University of California, Berkeley
Volume 10, Issue 4, August 2002
http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/editor/Publications/newsletter/2002/august2002/royalsociety.html
September 25, 2002
The Most Beautiful Experiment (Survey)
Physics World, Points of View: September 2002
http://physicsweb.org/article/world/15/9/2
"The most beautiful experiment in physics, according to a poll of Physics World readers, is the interference of single electrons in a Young's double slit. Robert P Crease reports." ... [detailed article continues] ...
Complete results of poll:
Top 10 beautiful experiments
---------------------------------------------------------------
1. Young's double-slit experiment applied to the interference of single electrons
2. Galileo's experiment on falling bodies (1600s)
3. Millikan's oil-drop experiment (1910s)
4. Newton's decomposition of sunlight with a prism (1665-1666)
5. Young's light-interference experiment (1801)
6. Cavendish's torsion-bar experiment (1798)
7. Eratosthenes' measurement of the Earth's circumference (3rd century BC)
8. Galileo's experiments with rolling balls down inclined planes (1600s)
9. Rutherford's discovery of the nucleus (1911)
10. Foucault's pendulum (1851)
Others experiments that were cited included:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Archimedes' experiment on hydrostatics
Roemer's observations of the speed of light
Joule's paddle-wheel heat experiments
Reynolds's pipe flow experiment
Mach & Salcher's acoustic shock wave
Michelson-Morley measurement of the null effect of the ether
Röntgen's detection of Maxwell's displacement current
Oersted's discovery of electromagnetism
The Braggs' X-ray diffraction of salt crystals
Eddington's measurement of the bending of starlight
Stern-Gerlach demonstration of space quantization
Schrödinger's cat thought experiment
Trinity test of nuclear chain reaction
Wu et al.'s measurement of parity violation
Goldhaber's study of neutrino helicity
Feynman dipping an O-ring in water
---------------------------------------------------------------
Author
Robert P Crease is in the Department of Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook, historian at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, and in 2002-2003 a senior fellow at the Dibnes Institute for Science and Technology, US, email rcrease@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
Physics World, Points of View: September 2002
http://physicsweb.org/article/world/15/9/2
"The most beautiful experiment in physics, according to a poll of Physics World readers, is the interference of single electrons in a Young's double slit. Robert P Crease reports." ... [detailed article continues] ...
Complete results of poll:
Top 10 beautiful experiments
---------------------------------------------------------------
1. Young's double-slit experiment applied to the interference of single electrons
2. Galileo's experiment on falling bodies (1600s)
3. Millikan's oil-drop experiment (1910s)
4. Newton's decomposition of sunlight with a prism (1665-1666)
5. Young's light-interference experiment (1801)
6. Cavendish's torsion-bar experiment (1798)
7. Eratosthenes' measurement of the Earth's circumference (3rd century BC)
8. Galileo's experiments with rolling balls down inclined planes (1600s)
9. Rutherford's discovery of the nucleus (1911)
10. Foucault's pendulum (1851)
Others experiments that were cited included:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Archimedes' experiment on hydrostatics
Roemer's observations of the speed of light
Joule's paddle-wheel heat experiments
Reynolds's pipe flow experiment
Mach & Salcher's acoustic shock wave
Michelson-Morley measurement of the null effect of the ether
Röntgen's detection of Maxwell's displacement current
Oersted's discovery of electromagnetism
The Braggs' X-ray diffraction of salt crystals
Eddington's measurement of the bending of starlight
Stern-Gerlach demonstration of space quantization
Schrödinger's cat thought experiment
Trinity test of nuclear chain reaction
Wu et al.'s measurement of parity violation
Goldhaber's study of neutrino helicity
Feynman dipping an O-ring in water
---------------------------------------------------------------
Author
Robert P Crease is in the Department of Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook, historian at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, and in 2002-2003 a senior fellow at the Dibnes Institute for Science and Technology, US, email rcrease@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
September 24, 2002
This Land is Your Land
by Woody Guthrie (1912 - 1967)
Born in Okemah, Oklahoma
[Jack's note: Showing my "Okie Pride" - A famous song by a famous fellow Oklahoman]
Words and annotations for "This Land is Your Land":
http://angam.ang.univie.ac.at/roadcult/guthrie/Land.htm
(chorus) This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the redwood forest to the gulf stream water,
This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway,
I saw below me that golden valley, I said
This land was made for you and me.
I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps
O'er the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,
While all around me a voice was sounding, saying
This land was made for you and me
Was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was posted, said “Private Property”
But on the back side, it didn’t say nothing --
This land was made for you and me.
When the sun was shining, then I was strolling
In the wheat fields waving, and the dust cloud rolling
The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting
This land was made for you and me.
One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the relief office I saw my people --
As they stood hungry,
I stood there wondering
if this land was made for you and me?
by Woody Guthrie (1912 - 1967)
Born in Okemah, Oklahoma
[Jack's note: Showing my "Okie Pride" - A famous song by a famous fellow Oklahoman]
Words and annotations for "This Land is Your Land":
http://angam.ang.univie.ac.at/roadcult/guthrie/Land.htm
(chorus) This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the redwood forest to the gulf stream water,
This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway,
I saw below me that golden valley, I said
This land was made for you and me.
I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps
O'er the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,
While all around me a voice was sounding, saying
This land was made for you and me
Was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was posted, said “Private Property”
But on the back side, it didn’t say nothing --
This land was made for you and me.
When the sun was shining, then I was strolling
In the wheat fields waving, and the dust cloud rolling
The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting
This land was made for you and me.
One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the relief office I saw my people --
As they stood hungry,
I stood there wondering
if this land was made for you and me?
"Gila Monster" Trial Diabetes Drug
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Eli Lilly Cuts Deal for the Rights to a New Diabetes Drug from Amylin
Diabetes In Control Newsletter Issue 123, September 25, 2002 http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/issue123/item3.shtml
Eli Lilly & Company will pay up to $325 million to Amylin Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company based in San Diego, for the rights to a potentially promising treatment for diabetes.
This article is exciting for me. About one year ago I participated in a clinical trial of the subject potential drug for treatment of diabetes from Amylin Pharmaceuticals. This is the first report I have seen about the "Gila monster" drug trial status.
I call it "Gila Monster" drug because the test drug is a synthetic version of a compound found in Gila Monster venom. Actually, until now I didn't realize Gila monsters are poisonous and the trial drug is a venom constituent. Wow! - glad I didn't know at the time. :-)
My phase II part of the double-blind trial involved taking steadily increasing dosages over about six weeks until I reported nausea. Based on test results for several hundred trial subjects like me, the practical drug dosage upper limit to minimize nausea was studied.
Well I really did get "big time" nausea with high dosage. That Gila monster venom packs a wallop! :-) And the last sentence of the article is: "Plus it induces nausea in some cases."
Yup - It sure does! But it is evidently a promising new drug for diabetes treatment.
Oh! I should mention - since the drug trial, a rubber Gila monster toy sits on top of my computer and I drink coffee from a cup with a picture of a Gila monster on it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Eli Lilly Cuts Deal for the Rights to a New Diabetes Drug from Amylin
Diabetes In Control Newsletter Issue 123, September 25, 2002 http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/issue123/item3.shtml
Eli Lilly & Company will pay up to $325 million to Amylin Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company based in San Diego, for the rights to a potentially promising treatment for diabetes.
This article is exciting for me. About one year ago I participated in a clinical trial of the subject potential drug for treatment of diabetes from Amylin Pharmaceuticals. This is the first report I have seen about the "Gila monster" drug trial status.
I call it "Gila Monster" drug because the test drug is a synthetic version of a compound found in Gila Monster venom. Actually, until now I didn't realize Gila monsters are poisonous and the trial drug is a venom constituent. Wow! - glad I didn't know at the time. :-)
My phase II part of the double-blind trial involved taking steadily increasing dosages over about six weeks until I reported nausea. Based on test results for several hundred trial subjects like me, the practical drug dosage upper limit to minimize nausea was studied.
Well I really did get "big time" nausea with high dosage. That Gila monster venom packs a wallop! :-) And the last sentence of the article is: "Plus it induces nausea in some cases."
Yup - It sure does! But it is evidently a promising new drug for diabetes treatment.
Oh! I should mention - since the drug trial, a rubber Gila monster toy sits on top of my computer and I drink coffee from a cup with a picture of a Gila monster on it.
ASCII Table & Test Your Mouse Abilities
I misplaced the ASCII Table I printed out years ago. So I went surfing and found <http://www.asciitable.com/> to print out a new copy of the Table.
I got a surprise at the ASCII Table website. On the right side of the screen are two boxes with tests for mouse quickness and agility. As luck would have it, the two tests are timely for me because I switched to a trackball a few months ago. So it is interesting to see how I do. Also, doing the tests brings a few grins. :-)
The first test is:
"How Quick are You? - press [start], then press [stop] when the border goes 'red' "
My best time so far is 0.33 seconds.
The second test is:
"How good are you with a mouse? Test yourself here - from the time you start ticking the boxes, you have 20 seconds to tick as many as you can. Click restart to clear the boxes. Good luck!"
My best result so far is ticking 23 boxes in 20 seconds.
If I really want to get scientific about this, I should get out my mouse and do a systematic mouse versus trackball comparison. I don't think I want to get that scientific. 8-]
I misplaced the ASCII Table I printed out years ago. So I went surfing and found <http://www.asciitable.com/> to print out a new copy of the Table.
I got a surprise at the ASCII Table website. On the right side of the screen are two boxes with tests for mouse quickness and agility. As luck would have it, the two tests are timely for me because I switched to a trackball a few months ago. So it is interesting to see how I do. Also, doing the tests brings a few grins. :-)
The first test is:
"How Quick are You? - press [start], then press [stop] when the border goes 'red' "
My best time so far is 0.33 seconds.
The second test is:
"How good are you with a mouse? Test yourself here - from the time you start ticking the boxes, you have 20 seconds to tick as many as you can. Click restart to clear the boxes. Good luck!"
My best result so far is ticking 23 boxes in 20 seconds.
If I really want to get scientific about this, I should get out my mouse and do a systematic mouse versus trackball comparison. I don't think I want to get that scientific. 8-]
Fuel Cells - Part III ("Hydrotopia")
Today's Salon.com, September 24, 2002, features an article concerning fuel cells: "Hydrotopia, - Author (*) and environmentalist Jeremy Rifkin explains why hydrogen is the next great power source", by Katharine Mieszkowski
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/09/24/hydrogen/index.html
The catchy "Hydrotopia" title for this article sounds like the over enthusiasm of old for fuel cells using hydrogen as fuel to generate electrical power for running automobiles, for independent power for homes, for batteries for cell phones, etc.
But the article is informative and complementary to articles for the previous posts Fuel Cells - Part I (Micro Fuel Cells) and Fuel Cells Part II (Automobile Fuel Cells). And the interview of Jeremy Rifkin emphasizes some new points for me, some of which were covered in part in the previous references.
Examples include noting that laws are already passed in 30 states requiring utilities to purchase power put on the grid by people using fuel cells and a proposed law in California for strict automobile emissions reduction by 2009. Rifkin sees a groundswell leading to a hydrogen based fuel economy with computer software and the Internet playing important roles to make it possible. According to Rifkin, "A future in which every car driver could also be an energy producer implies a power infrastructure that is fundamentally decentralized. When everyone becomes a buyer and a seller of power, the similarly decentralized Internet will be the medium that matches producers and consumers together."
---------
References for previous posts:
Science News Week of Sept. 21, 2002, "Pocket Sockets, Tiny fuel cells for portable electronics have arrived, almost" , by Peter Weiss
http://www.sciencenews.org/20020907/bob10.asp
---------
Scientific American September 16, 2002, Designing AUTOnomy,One of the designers of a radical new fuel-cell-car concept explains what was done, by Christopher E. Borroni-Bird
http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=00034FE5-BA99-1D80-90FB809EC5880000
---------
(*) The Hydrogen Economy, by Jeremy Rifkin, Tarcher/Putnam, 294 pages, Nonfiction
---------
Today's Salon.com, September 24, 2002, features an article concerning fuel cells: "Hydrotopia, - Author (*) and environmentalist Jeremy Rifkin explains why hydrogen is the next great power source", by Katharine Mieszkowski
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/09/24/hydrogen/index.html
The catchy "Hydrotopia" title for this article sounds like the over enthusiasm of old for fuel cells using hydrogen as fuel to generate electrical power for running automobiles, for independent power for homes, for batteries for cell phones, etc.
But the article is informative and complementary to articles for the previous posts Fuel Cells - Part I (Micro Fuel Cells) and Fuel Cells Part II (Automobile Fuel Cells). And the interview of Jeremy Rifkin emphasizes some new points for me, some of which were covered in part in the previous references.
Examples include noting that laws are already passed in 30 states requiring utilities to purchase power put on the grid by people using fuel cells and a proposed law in California for strict automobile emissions reduction by 2009. Rifkin sees a groundswell leading to a hydrogen based fuel economy with computer software and the Internet playing important roles to make it possible. According to Rifkin, "A future in which every car driver could also be an energy producer implies a power infrastructure that is fundamentally decentralized. When everyone becomes a buyer and a seller of power, the similarly decentralized Internet will be the medium that matches producers and consumers together."
---------
References for previous posts:
Science News Week of Sept. 21, 2002, "Pocket Sockets, Tiny fuel cells for portable electronics have arrived, almost" , by Peter Weiss
http://www.sciencenews.org/20020907/bob10.asp
---------
Scientific American September 16, 2002, Designing AUTOnomy,One of the designers of a radical new fuel-cell-car concept explains what was done, by Christopher E. Borroni-Bird
http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=00034FE5-BA99-1D80-90FB809EC5880000
---------
(*) The Hydrogen Economy, by Jeremy Rifkin, Tarcher/Putnam, 294 pages, Nonfiction
---------
September 23, 2002
Flip Virtual Coins
The Web page <http://www.random.org/flip.html> flips a virtual coin for you.
"The outcome is truly random because it is based on true random numbers rather than pseudo random numbers commonly used in computer programs."
I had fun with the website because the "virtual coins" are from around the world. High quality pictures of the coin head or tail appear depending on the result of the coin flip.
The virtual coin selection is:
----------
Colombian 500 pesos (COP)
Danish 10 kr (DKR)
European €1 (EUR) - Portuguese
Dutch Rijksdaaler (2.5 Guilders) (NLG)
East Carribean $1 (XCD)
European €1 (EUR) - Belgian
European €1 (EUR) - German
European €1 (EUR) - Spanish
European €1 (EUR) - Finnish
European €1 (EUR) - French
European €1 (EUR) - Irish
European €1 (EUR) - Italian
European €1 (EUR) - Luxembourgian
European €1 (EUR) - Dutch
European €1 (EUR) - Austrian
European €1 (EUR) - Portuguese
Swiss 1 Franc (CHF)
Swiss 2 Franc (CHF)
US 25¢ (USD) - Connecticut
US 25¢ (USD) - Delaware
US 25¢ (USD) - Georgia
US 25¢ (USD) - Maryland
US 25¢ (USD) - Massachusetts
US 25¢ (USD) - New Jersey
US 25¢ (USD) - Pennsylvania
----------
The home page <http://www.random.org/> is a "True Random Number Service" with many options to check out if interested in lists of "true" random numbers.
The Web page <http://www.random.org/flip.html> flips a virtual coin for you.
"The outcome is truly random because it is based on true random numbers rather than pseudo random numbers commonly used in computer programs."
I had fun with the website because the "virtual coins" are from around the world. High quality pictures of the coin head or tail appear depending on the result of the coin flip.
The virtual coin selection is:
----------
Colombian 500 pesos (COP)
Danish 10 kr (DKR)
European €1 (EUR) - Portuguese
Dutch Rijksdaaler (2.5 Guilders) (NLG)
East Carribean $1 (XCD)
European €1 (EUR) - Belgian
European €1 (EUR) - German
European €1 (EUR) - Spanish
European €1 (EUR) - Finnish
European €1 (EUR) - French
European €1 (EUR) - Irish
European €1 (EUR) - Italian
European €1 (EUR) - Luxembourgian
European €1 (EUR) - Dutch
European €1 (EUR) - Austrian
European €1 (EUR) - Portuguese
Swiss 1 Franc (CHF)
Swiss 2 Franc (CHF)
US 25¢ (USD) - Connecticut
US 25¢ (USD) - Delaware
US 25¢ (USD) - Georgia
US 25¢ (USD) - Maryland
US 25¢ (USD) - Massachusetts
US 25¢ (USD) - New Jersey
US 25¢ (USD) - Pennsylvania
----------
The home page <http://www.random.org/> is a "True Random Number Service" with many options to check out if interested in lists of "true" random numbers.
September 22, 2002
OK! So Call Me a Dumb Engineer! :-)
One of my strong points as a chemical plant process engineer was being good natured about kidding from the plant operators that I am a "dumb engineer." The operators often had good reason for the name calling. For example I designed a thickener (a large vessel to settle solids from liquids) and installed a pump that had one-third the required capacity to pump the "thickener underflow" - the concentrated settled solids.
When we started up, I spent days trying to figure out why the "mud level" was always high and spilling into the thickener overflow. It took a sharp operator to catch my error. Fortunately it was a "quick fix" and all was fine afterwards. And all the operators had a field day kidding me which actually is good. It made me more accepted as a "regular guy" and hardly affected the project meeting its target costs.
So why do I write all this. I guess I am still a dumb engineer. About three years ago I bought a 10-ft. trailer for general use including hauling tree limbs to the dump after wind storms, hauling large items I purchase such as lumber purchases, and many other uses including hauling my rider lawn mower to the repair shop. Knowing I would haul the rider mower, I bought a "tilt bed" trailer so the mower can be driven easily onto the trailer. OK so far.
But recently I decided I might haul items on the Interstate such as furniture from Oklahoma City 75 miles away. So I bought a spare tire and a kit for attaching the spare tire to the trailer. Then I mounted the trailer spare tire at the front of the trailer bed near the hitch to the pickup truck.
Way to go, Schwartz! With the spare tire mounted in the forward position, the trailer bed fails to tilt down when I want to load my mower.
Back to the drawing board. I bought a second spare tire bracket and re-mounted the spare tire on the back right side of the trailer. Good Work! Now all works perfect when I want to tilt the trailer bed to load my mower.
So it cost me an extra $30 for a second tire bracket. Which, by the way, I purposely chose to do rather than move the spare tire bracket. It is handy to have the option to mount the tire in the different locations depending on the hauling job. Also, I learned the spare tire bracket at the forward position is handy for using tie-downs to cinch loads extra tight and be confident the load won't slide backwards.
See, I'm not such a dumb engineer after all. You all know I figured my final configuration of spare tire brackets from the very start. Yeah, Right! :-) :-)
One of my strong points as a chemical plant process engineer was being good natured about kidding from the plant operators that I am a "dumb engineer." The operators often had good reason for the name calling. For example I designed a thickener (a large vessel to settle solids from liquids) and installed a pump that had one-third the required capacity to pump the "thickener underflow" - the concentrated settled solids.
When we started up, I spent days trying to figure out why the "mud level" was always high and spilling into the thickener overflow. It took a sharp operator to catch my error. Fortunately it was a "quick fix" and all was fine afterwards. And all the operators had a field day kidding me which actually is good. It made me more accepted as a "regular guy" and hardly affected the project meeting its target costs.
So why do I write all this. I guess I am still a dumb engineer. About three years ago I bought a 10-ft. trailer for general use including hauling tree limbs to the dump after wind storms, hauling large items I purchase such as lumber purchases, and many other uses including hauling my rider lawn mower to the repair shop. Knowing I would haul the rider mower, I bought a "tilt bed" trailer so the mower can be driven easily onto the trailer. OK so far.
But recently I decided I might haul items on the Interstate such as furniture from Oklahoma City 75 miles away. So I bought a spare tire and a kit for attaching the spare tire to the trailer. Then I mounted the trailer spare tire at the front of the trailer bed near the hitch to the pickup truck.
Way to go, Schwartz! With the spare tire mounted in the forward position, the trailer bed fails to tilt down when I want to load my mower.
Back to the drawing board. I bought a second spare tire bracket and re-mounted the spare tire on the back right side of the trailer. Good Work! Now all works perfect when I want to tilt the trailer bed to load my mower.
So it cost me an extra $30 for a second tire bracket. Which, by the way, I purposely chose to do rather than move the spare tire bracket. It is handy to have the option to mount the tire in the different locations depending on the hauling job. Also, I learned the spare tire bracket at the forward position is handy for using tie-downs to cinch loads extra tight and be confident the load won't slide backwards.
See, I'm not such a dumb engineer after all. You all know I figured my final configuration of spare tire brackets from the very start. Yeah, Right! :-) :-)
September 21, 2002
A Better Mouse Trap (Maybe :-))
You know the old shibboleth about inventors trying to make a better mouse trap. It seems this goal is alive and well.
First - a little background. This summer I am taking care of a neighbor's lawn where a house burned down. A gopher (or gophers) came along about a month ago and started digging up a section of the lawn. So "Trapper Jack" :-) set out four Victor "EasySet® Gopher Traps (*) to get rid of the little critters.
(*) http://www.victorpest.com/
click on [Mole & Gopher Traps]
click again on [Mole & Gopher Traps]
Finally I trapped a gopher today. It is just a little bigger than a plump mouse. But Hey! .. a month? Ol' Trapper Jack has to do better than that. So this old geezer became prompted to look on the Internet for a "better gopher trap." I surfed and found the RidaBug.com website ... and, Man oh Man, do they have a mouse trap! I can't say I'm immediately ready to place an order to RidaBug at a $49.95 price. I don't know if it IS a "better mouse trap." But get this description. What fun it would be to give it a try! ;-)
http://www.ridabug.com/RCBA0002.asp
[Check out the picture!]
"The Rat Zapper 2000 is a rodent control device that utilizes Advanced Electronic Technology to instantaneously deliver a lethal dose of electricity to rats and mice.
The Electrocution Chamber houses a bait area and kill plate. When the Rat Zapper detects the presence of a rodent on the kill plate, the Power Supply instantly releases stored electrical energy sufficient to kill the rodent.
The Rat Zapper contains no moving parts, so it doesn't wear out."
You know the old shibboleth about inventors trying to make a better mouse trap. It seems this goal is alive and well.
First - a little background. This summer I am taking care of a neighbor's lawn where a house burned down. A gopher (or gophers) came along about a month ago and started digging up a section of the lawn. So "Trapper Jack" :-) set out four Victor "EasySet® Gopher Traps (*) to get rid of the little critters.
(*) http://www.victorpest.com/
click on [Mole & Gopher Traps]
click again on [Mole & Gopher Traps]
Finally I trapped a gopher today. It is just a little bigger than a plump mouse. But Hey! .. a month? Ol' Trapper Jack has to do better than that. So this old geezer became prompted to look on the Internet for a "better gopher trap." I surfed and found the RidaBug.com website ... and, Man oh Man, do they have a mouse trap! I can't say I'm immediately ready to place an order to RidaBug at a $49.95 price. I don't know if it IS a "better mouse trap." But get this description. What fun it would be to give it a try! ;-)
http://www.ridabug.com/RCBA0002.asp
[Check out the picture!]
"The Rat Zapper 2000 is a rodent control device that utilizes Advanced Electronic Technology to instantaneously deliver a lethal dose of electricity to rats and mice.
The Electrocution Chamber houses a bait area and kill plate. When the Rat Zapper detects the presence of a rodent on the kill plate, the Power Supply instantly releases stored electrical energy sufficient to kill the rodent.
The Rat Zapper contains no moving parts, so it doesn't wear out."
September 20, 2002
What is a dollar worth?
To me, this is a cool website. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis gives a detailed explanation for using Consumer Price Index (CPI) to calculate the inflation in dollar value for a given year compared to any earlier year back to 1913.
http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/research/data/us/calc/
The website conveniently does interactive calculations for specific examples. I calculated the inflation based on CPI since I was born in 1939 to present.
So here is the good (or is it bad? :-)) news.
------------------------
If in [1939]
I bought goods or services for [$10.00]
then in [2002]
the same goods or services would cost [$128.99]
------------------------
To me, this is a cool website. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis gives a detailed explanation for using Consumer Price Index (CPI) to calculate the inflation in dollar value for a given year compared to any earlier year back to 1913.
http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/research/data/us/calc/
The website conveniently does interactive calculations for specific examples. I calculated the inflation based on CPI since I was born in 1939 to present.
So here is the good (or is it bad? :-)) news.
------------------------
If in [1939]
I bought goods or services for [$10.00]
then in [2002]
the same goods or services would cost [$128.99]
------------------------
Online 'Smiley Face' :-) Turns 20
Reuters 9/20/02
The smiley face :-) turning 20 yesterday brings back memories of first going on the Internet in 1994 - the year I retired. When I first saw a smiley face in an e-mail, I couldn't figure out what it was. When I figured it out, I wasn't comfortable for awhile using the smiley face myself. Then I came to like using :-), and I am a frequent user now of smiley face and other "emoticons."
Which reminds me, my use of other emoticons increased since discovering the free software "Smiley Faces ver. 1.2.0" which can be downloaded at "Lalim's Homepage" <http://www.angelfire.com/mb/lalim/> This software lets you scroll through a long list of emoticons, then select one and copy and paste it in your message with user friendly assistance.
Lalim's Homepage is worth checking out in its own right. It is a potpourri of other free software and includes a page of "Good Quotations by Famous People."
Getting back to the smiley face birthday announcement, it is mentioned that smiley face use encounters some frowns by people saying that good use of language shouldn't need gimmicks such as smiley faces to add to the message clarity.
Its creator, Scott Fahlman, responds with a quote I like: "If Shakespeare were tossing off a quick note complaining about the lack of employee parking spaces near the Globe Theater, he might have produced the same kind of sloppy prose that the rest of us do." :-) :-)
----------
Reuters story - Online 'Smiley Face' :-) Turns 20
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "It was 20 years ago Thursday that Scott Fahlman taught the 'Net how to smile.
Other computer scientists know the IBM researcher for his work with neural networks -- a computer technique designed to mimic the human brain -- and helping to develop Common Lisp, a computer language that uses symbols instead of numbers."
For "the rest of the story" :-), go to:
http://investor.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-20434189-0.html
Reuters 9/20/02
The smiley face :-) turning 20 yesterday brings back memories of first going on the Internet in 1994 - the year I retired. When I first saw a smiley face in an e-mail, I couldn't figure out what it was. When I figured it out, I wasn't comfortable for awhile using the smiley face myself. Then I came to like using :-), and I am a frequent user now of smiley face and other "emoticons."
Which reminds me, my use of other emoticons increased since discovering the free software "Smiley Faces ver. 1.2.0" which can be downloaded at "Lalim's Homepage" <http://www.angelfire.com/mb/lalim/> This software lets you scroll through a long list of emoticons, then select one and copy and paste it in your message with user friendly assistance.
Lalim's Homepage is worth checking out in its own right. It is a potpourri of other free software and includes a page of "Good Quotations by Famous People."
Getting back to the smiley face birthday announcement, it is mentioned that smiley face use encounters some frowns by people saying that good use of language shouldn't need gimmicks such as smiley faces to add to the message clarity.
Its creator, Scott Fahlman, responds with a quote I like: "If Shakespeare were tossing off a quick note complaining about the lack of employee parking spaces near the Globe Theater, he might have produced the same kind of sloppy prose that the rest of us do." :-) :-)
----------
Reuters story - Online 'Smiley Face' :-) Turns 20
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "It was 20 years ago Thursday that Scott Fahlman taught the 'Net how to smile.
Other computer scientists know the IBM researcher for his work with neural networks -- a computer technique designed to mimic the human brain -- and helping to develop Common Lisp, a computer language that uses symbols instead of numbers."
For "the rest of the story" :-), go to:
http://investor.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-20434189-0.html
September 19, 2002
Comprehending Engineers - Take Four (of Ten)
[Chemical Engineering Magazine January 25, 2002]
With Jerry and I being retired researchers and engineers, I think we should both take note of this "funny" about a retired engineer. Hey! We may need an extra $50,000 sometime! 8-)
------------------
"There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he happily retired.
Several years later the company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their multimillion dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone else to get the machine to work but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past. The engineer reluctantly took the challenge.
He spent a day studying the huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x" in chalk on a particular component of the machine and stated, "This is where your problem is." The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again.
The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges. The engineer responded briefly: One chalk mark $1 Knowing where to put it $49,999 It was paid in full and the engineer retired again in peace."
------------------
The full ten parts of the Comprehending Engineers funnies are at:
http://www.che.com/funnies/
[Chemical Engineering Magazine January 25, 2002]
With Jerry and I being retired researchers and engineers, I think we should both take note of this "funny" about a retired engineer. Hey! We may need an extra $50,000 sometime! 8-)
------------------
"There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he happily retired.
Several years later the company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their multimillion dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone else to get the machine to work but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past. The engineer reluctantly took the challenge.
He spent a day studying the huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x" in chalk on a particular component of the machine and stated, "This is where your problem is." The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again.
The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges. The engineer responded briefly: One chalk mark $1 Knowing where to put it $49,999 It was paid in full and the engineer retired again in peace."
------------------
The full ten parts of the Comprehending Engineers funnies are at:
http://www.che.com/funnies/