Be Sure You"re Right: Davy Crockett vs. Nike

   When I was young Walt Disney reminded us of the legendary American hero Davy Crockett. One of the things Crockett was known for was his motto "Be sure you're right, then go ahead." In recent years we have been hearing a lot of the motto "Just do it."
    I have actually been told that it is better to do something wrong than to take time to think about what I'm doing, to be sure that I am right. I actually have had several people tell me the same thing. I should point out that they were all small time contractors. I emphasize small time.
    I have also known some very successful people, including contractors and military leaders. They were in the habit of being sure. I have also known many academicians, who tended to try to be sure that they were right. I have also known a number of politicians. They so very often don't give a hoot about whether or not they are correct.
    The senior President Bush and Senator McCain come to mind. For much of their careers they tried to follow a path that they seemed to actually believe in.Then running for the office of President came along. Each of them then spent a few years not seeming to do what they believed in. Bush senior eventually did seem to do what had to be done, and Senator McCain has begun to act for what is right instead of what pleases a handful of radicals.
    Global warming is a real threat. When you concentrate wealth, you diminish wealth. American wealth has been founded on government handouts to business. We the people funded the railroads. The Constitution says that we are supposed to "promote the general welfare." The Federalist Papers says that that means, among other things, what we now know as Social Security and universal health care. By the way, the Bible also says that we should take care of our fellow humans.

Have You Been Hacked?

Just a word of warning. Microsoft does not call you to tell you you're having problems with your computer. There are some real shysters out there looking to take advantage of you. I've been re-formatting computers all day and am not through yet. I had other stuff I was wanting to write about. Another day.

How Accurate Does Pi Need to Be?

I just want to make a little clearer what I was just writing about when I was speaking about a quantum mechanical limit to the value for pi. The calculation for pi assumes a purely Euclidean geometry. The real world seems to follow the geometry of General Relativity (Riemannian geometry). Euclidean geometry works as a good approximation in low gravity for short distances.  That means at some point quantum mechanics and general relativity conspire to mean that pi needs only be accurate up to that point.

Some physicist who is up to the math should look at this It probably turns out to coincide with a known  phenomenon. Perhaps someone else has already done the work and I just haven't run into it yet.

What is The Life of Pi?

  Just wanted to comment on the movie " Life of Pi." I am intrigued by the many digit form of the number pi shown early in the movie. It occurs to me that Quantum Physics says that such a long version of pi is meaningless because of the uncertainty principle. In reality, nothing can be measured to that degree of certainty.Which version do you prefer?  I am actually asking the same question that Pi did at the end of the movie. I hope someone has the understanding to comment on this. Or at least to say " Say what?"

Is the Cannabis Cup in America a Sign of Progress?

   Yesterday I wrote an article about the 2013 High Times Cannabis Cup, a  combination festival and trade show celebrating marijuana. After 25 years  of being held in Amsterdam it was held in Seattle this September 7-8.

   Whether this is a positive or a negative development is a subject for  debate, as it has been since William Randolph Hearst sought to protect his newsprint interest from competition from the hemp industry. Because marijuana use in America was associated  with African Americans, Mexicans,and Hindus it was easy to bring race into the debate. Much of the debate in Congress centered on the color of the skin of marijuana smokers and the need to "protect our children from exposure to dark-skinned people."

   Extracts from the cannabis plant have a long history in healing practices  (medicine) of many different cultures. Cannabis products also have a long  history in religion. Marijuana has a very complicated chemical  composition. Two chemicals, cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol, are  the primary drug and psychoactive components of marijuana.

   Cannabidiol, known as CBD, has become of interest in medical marijuana circles because strains of marijuana high in CBD and low in THC (tetrahydro-cannabinol) are very effective in treating pediatric epilepsy. Because these strains do not have strong psychoactive characteristics, they are               considered more suitable for treating children. 

It is interesting to note that the only negative side effect to marijuana based medicines ever mentioned is "a mild feeling of euphoria." Other  medicines may list such things as death, paralysis, heart attack, blindness,  sterility, impotence, hallucinations, or any number of very undesirable  consequences. As long as they don't make you feel good, they get       approved.

An interesting observation is that the one technologically advanced   nation fostering serious medical research on cannabis is Israel. It has been  suggested that the phrase "a land flowing with milk and honey" means "a  land with much marijuana" since milk and honey refers to a common way  of consuming cannabis and early Palestine is known to have had abundant  cannabis. Go to the site of the Zion Coptic Church for more on this subject.   

Does Your Back Door Have Insect Guards?

Nephila clavipes
photo by Thomas Pendrake This lovely lady lives near our back door light and helps keep the bug population in control. She measures about four inches. She is a golden orb spider and I understand it is possible to make one bite you if you try hard enough. They are called golden orb spiders because they create silk covered egg sacs using their golden silk. This silk is one of the strongest fibers known.

Scientists who play with genetics have bred milk goats using gene splicing to add spider silk genes to a line of milk goats in order to bee able to produce fibers of spider silk from goat milk. In one experiment the protein was mixed with human skin cells to produce bullet-proof human skin.
   Spider man fans and the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about probably like the idea, but it does kindly creep me out. (kindly is cracker speak)
     I used to keep milk goats so I worry about these goats getting into the gene pool. Goat milk is enjoyed by more humans that any other kind of milk. I am allergic to cow milk.

    A couple of days ago I watched a different moth get caught in this spider's web. The moth immediately stopped moving and the spider did not realize it was there. After a few minutes it managed to fall free of the web. I am willing to bet that this moth fought to get free of the web.

     I'm suspect that the moth who got away had ancestors who got away. If not, maybe it will have descendants who will.  

What Is Content Writing and How Does it Relate to the Hygiene Hypothesis?

   I just finished writing an article for a blog for a company called Pure Citizen which is a marketing site for products which are either organic, free of synthetic chemicals, or at least ethically produced and marketed. The article I just wrote was about organic kid's clothing. It seems I had to discuss the hygiene hypothesis. Wikipedia seems to think this is a fairly new topic. Hahnemann pretty much laid out the concept about two hundred years ago.
   The hygiene hypothesis ( I believe it used to be called the hygienic hypothesis) first began to be a mainstream concept when the polio epidemic arose. Polio was a common mild disease for thousands of years. Before modern sewage practices were developed everyone was exposed to very mild versions of polio at a very young age. Kinda sounds like the Sabin vaccine dispensed by God/nature/whatever name. God knows his name and how you may pronounce it. After modern sewage systems were developed the natural communal immunity to polio vanished and virulent strains developed.
   The human immune system developed in an environment filled with potential pathogens which the immune system readily handles. If a child is not exposed to enough of these it may become unable to respond properly to other substances and may also turn its attention to its own body. Allergies and auto-immune diseases may result.  Folk-lore has "Mommy's Babies" more prone to asthma.
   Expect more on this subject.

AP style vs. academic style

   I would like any comments on the AP style guidelines compared to the style I was taught in Honors English at William and Mary.

Where is the Garden of Eden?

      Back on August 5 I mentioned that the Garden of Eden is under 300 ft of water. Some people have postulated that the Garden of Eden was located in an area that has been inundated by rising sea waters after the period of flooding   following the massive release of methane due to underwater landslides into methane clathrates.  Methane clathrates are a form of ice with methane and other hydrocarbons locked into the structure. Methane clathrates are unstable and disturbances can result in the release of large amounts of methane.This phenomenon has resulted in the disappearance of ships in the "Bermuda triangle" and the North Sea. Minor earthquakes in this area can result in the release of significant amounts of methane.  If this occurs when a ship is above the release the ship will suddenly sink. One explanation for the disappearance of the Sulphur Queen in 1963 relies on this phenomenon. This subject is a cause for debate in academic circles. Methane releases are known to occur in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida.  If the release of gas results in an explosion because of static electricity it can result in a shock wave that feels like a small earthquake. These shocks occur a few times a year.I live twenty plus miles inland and they are quite noticeable. I don't know if all experts agree as to the explanation of these shocks, but I know that it seems to be the best available one.

Power From My Septic Tank

   Sorry its been a few days since I have posted anything new but I have been busy worrying about my electricity bill.   Sure makes me wish I had solar  cells on my roof and gobar powered fuelcells operating off my    septic system. We have enough wind here in Florida that an electric windmill would be a good investment too.

   Unfortunately septic tank fuel cells don't seem to be designed for  American homes. Most work done on the subject of energy from home  waste is designed for third world extreme rural settings or for commercial waste systems and frequently uses gobar or biogas for heating or cooking or producing fuel for vehicles.

   My first experience with fuel cells came when my father helped my older brother built one for science fair project about 1960.  We used  a   potassium hydroxide solution and  electrodes made from  carbon rods  scavenged from dry-cell batteries. Holes were drilled through the rods.  One rod was simply open to the air and the other was supplied with   butane from a blow-torch bottle. As I remember, the cell was  simply connected to a voltmeter to show that it did produce a voltage.

   Much of the early work on fuel cells was done by scientists who were also working on the development of electrical cells or batteries. This is logical since the primary difference between electrical cells and fuel cells is that  conventional electrochemical cells and fuel cells is that the fuel is built  into the cell and is used up in the conventional cell and is supplied  from outside in the fuel cell and can be replaced continuously. A  rechargeable cell can have the fuel replaced by running an electrical  current in the reverse direction and undoing the chemical process in the  cell.

   The earliest known fuel cells were made around 1839 by William Robert  Grove based on research by Christian Friedrich Schonbien. The first  commercial use of fuel cells was in the U.S. space program for project  Gemini. 

   Some fuel cells use bacteria to produce electricity but are not very  efficient. The one real benefit is that the process yields pure water from wastewater at a very low cost. Australia has done the most work on this   type of fuel cell because of their ability to purify water. 

     

   The use of gobar or biogas to power fuel cells is a much more successful  proposition than bacterial fuel cells. Many manufacturing installations have installed gobar powered fuel cell plants to process waste from their  installation. The cost of these units are coming down and the hope is that  this will lead to the development of small units. Perhaps someday I'll be  able to have my septic tank fuel cell.