Saturday, February 8, 2025

Follow-up on Kiwi "Balls" post

The question that got me started down this rabbit-hole was an article about the complexities of maintaining our fecal microbiome. That is, maintaining a stable ecosystem of fecal bacteria (mostly).

The human microbiome has been implicated in Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn's Disease, Obesity, Autism, Bowel and Rectal Cancer....Flatulence, Strokes....and on, and on, and on.

It isn't enough to eat a spoonful of yogurt every day. That is like throwing a handful of seeds into the yard and expecting to harvest a field of wheat.

This peer-reviewed article looks at some of the factors that impact bacterial recolonization of material entering the ascending colon from the small-intestine.

Here are the "images" from the article:

Dashed lines indicate "typical" flow velocities and mixing rates in the ascending colon

Data gathered by radio-isotopes injected into the large colons of test subjects. Lines are curve-fits with red line being the mean. The data shows a very wide distribution and does not show a bell-shaped distribution.

Graphic illustrating mechanisms in play. Material entering the large bowel is very soupy and the volume at the exit is (typically) is reduced to 1/5th the entering volume by way of water removal.

The ellipse encloses the range of measurements of people who characterized themselves as "healthy"

Among the factors NOT considered in this study were fiber particle size and the mixing from exercise.

Some of us experience more dental issues as we age and we don't chew our food as thoroughly as we did/could as when we were younger. Bacteria can only access the particle from its exposed surface, so even if there was "plenty" of fiber from a mass standpoint, if the particles are large then those nutrients are not very accessible to the various bacteria in our guts.

Another thing that can happen as we age is that we sit in our recliners as we eat while we watch TV and we don't pay attention to what is in our mouth. It is reasonable to hypothesize that we might not chew our food as much when we are distracted.

Another thing that has changed in the last sixty years is that nearly everybody has a "recliner" or La-Z-Boy or Barka lounger. They used to be called "invalid chairs" but now they are very, very common even for able-bodied people.

Sitting in a recliner lulls our core, stability muscles to inaction. Continuing the hypothesis, the inaction of those muscles slows the passage of food through our guts and also throws the entire burden of ascending-bowel content mixing upon the spasming of the lower-bowel walls.

These conditions are very different from the conditions our bodies were designed for (or evolved under) and it should not be surprising if we get suboptimal performance from them.

Where is the medical science?

Where is the money?

Most of the science seems to be directed at looking for the BEST strains of bacteria to load into fecal transplants. Those strains could then be patented and turned into income-streams.

There is no money to be made in coaching people to eat a balanced diet (adding vegetable fiber if you are eating a meat-centric diet), getting dental work done if indicated, turning off the TV, sitting at the table, chewing your food and taking a walk optimally timed to speed up the slinky of incoming food through the processes.

Friday, February 7, 2025

Some Kiwis Exercise their "Balls" Several Times a Day!!!

Many years ago, I heard a comedy skit of a woman "from a civilized country" who went to New Zealand. The first native she encountered was an older gentleman who talked about his "balls" in excruciating detail and for an agonizingly length of time.

The young "lady" was mortified to learn that some days the eighty-year-old man exercised his "balls" three, even four times a day. And later in the week, he might go for one...even two days without exercising them, a situation which the senior citizen found to be an incredible hardship!

When asked, the senior citizen allowed how most Kiwis (at least the older, more feeble ones) had similar issues.

It was much later that the "lady" discovered that the senior citizen was talking about his BOWELS.

As a young man, I found great humor in how much "old people" talked about their digestion.

So gentle readers, with that said, I want tap your collective wisdom.

"What is the optimum amount of time between eating your last meal and hitting-the-rack?"

"Do you engage in a postprandial circumambulation (walk after eating)? If so, how long after eating?"

"In your experience, what is the optimal amount (time or distance) of your postprandial circumambulations? Is a ten minute walk enough? Twenty minutes?"

"Does the walk help reduce the positive buoyancy (gas) associated with bolus injection into the ascending regions of the lower bowel or is there some other benefit?" and "Does it contribute to a peaceful night of slumber?"

Inquiring minds want to know.

A little East of Paris: We got ourselves a Convoy


Dr von Tersch called security to get control of the situation. Then he quickly brought the Dean up-to-speed and then went out to see why the media had shown up.

He approached the men who were unloading equipment from the truck and informed them, “I cannot allow you into the building. We have a fire/explosion risk that we are mitigating at this time.”

“Are you evacuating the building?” the gawky young man who von Tersch recognized as one of the local news stations second-string reporters.

“Not at this time. We believe that people who are in classrooms are more secure there than if we evacuate them through the high-risk zone. The situation is developing even as we speak.” von Tersch told the newsie.

“Can you give a statement?” the newsie asked.

“I can but you are going to hear exactly what I just told you. If you try to dig out any more information we are both going to look like idiots” von Tersch told him.

Two minutes later, the newsie was ready to start taping but von Tersch was not.

He didn’t allow the newsie to position him so he was squinting into the sun. He had seen interviews where the person being interviewed was made to look like a liar because not wanting to look into the sun was interpreted as avoiding eye-contact.

“I have weak eyes, we are going to have to do this in the shade or I am going to have to wear my “Go Aggies” baseball cap. Your choice” von Tersch told the camera-man.

The newsie grudgingly allowed the interview to take place under a shade tree. He hated bird-poop and his disgust and discomfort came across in the interview.

“I have Dean von Tersch with me. What can you tell me about what is going on inside?”

“First of all, it is just “Doctor” von Tersch. I am the head of the Language Arts Department” von Tersch calmly corrected the newsie.

“Ok, whatever” the newsie said, knowing he could edit out any parts he didn’t like.

“We have a minor event going on that involves some sparks forming. And out of an abundance of caution, we are limiting access to that area while the issues are being resolved” von Tersch said.

“Why aren’t you evacuating the building?” the newsie asked.

“We aren’t evacuating at this time because that would expose the people in the building to the higher risk areas. We are handling the issue by cordoning off that area and only allowing emergency personnel in.”

“How long will it take to resolve the issue?” the newsie asked.

“I don’t have that information” von Tersch said. “We have all of the resources we need at this time and they are diligently working on the problem.”

Then the newsie sprung his “gotchya” question. “We heard that a professor that flunked more than half his class was trapped in an office. Is that true?”

Dr von Tersch hoped the shade masked the flush of anger that he could feel rising up his face.

“I don’t have that information” von Tersch repeated. “Let me reiterate that we have all of the resources we need and that they are diligently working on the issue.”

***

Cutting off the hinges had not been enough to spring the door.

Bernie and Chuck were having an arcane discussion about the relative merits of a tool called a Sawz-all and a circular saw.

They quickly agreed that they need to use both tools.

“Ok, we have a plan” Chuck told Gwain. “We are going to use a circular saw to cut through the shims at the top of the door and see if that will be enough to pull the door open. If it isn’t we are going to use a Sawz-all to cut the shims at the bottom and try again."

“Both tools are very loud and they might make a bad smell” Chuck added.

Gwain said “Give us a minute.” as he rifled through his drawers and found the remains of a package of Covid facemasks.

He handed one to Olivia as he put one on his face. “OK, let her rip.”

He didn’t expect the masks to stop the smell but at least they wouldn’t have to breath the dust.

Cutting the top was not enough but cutting the shims on the bottom was just enough when Chuck slid the wrecking bar through the gap at the bottom of the door and oriented it to hook the door’s edge.

Dr von Tersch had assigned Violet the task of picking escorts to lead Gwain and Olivia through the Language Arts building and through maintenance door beside the loading bay at the back of the building and thence to the Student Health Services.

In addition to Violet who could clear a sidewalk with a stern frown, there was Assistant Professor Ed Stoffer and a grad-student named Otis Grant.

Otis had grown up on the wrong side of the tracks but through strength of will and the disciplines imposed by Mixed Martial Arts and weight-lifting had freed himself from the claws that tried to pull him back. He considered the Language Arts Department to be his new tribe.

Otis took the drag position. He shed his dress shirt and was wearing a tight, black tee-shirt. He flexed as he walked through the maintenance door and assumed his “Hulk”, balls-of-feet posture and his pre-competition game-face. He activated his constant-scan mode, a skill that had helped him avoid several muggins in-da-hood. Nobody was going to sneak up on “the package”.

“Do you have any kids?” Olivia asked Gwain as they walked across the concrete apron of the loading dock.

“No. That is a gift that God did not give us” Gwain said. It was a wound, long covered with scar tissue.

“You would have been a great dad” Olivia said, almost too softly to hear.

Gwain reached out to touch her hand in thanks.

She grabbed it and did not let go as the five people “convoyed” through the quiet path behind the buildings toward the Student Health Services building. Four of the five were totally unremarkable: A dumpy, fifty-year-old black woman, a prematurely bald white man wearing a polo shirt, khaki pants and carrying a briefcase, a gaunt, stooped old man holding hands with a girl who looked much younger than her 19 years.
 
Most of the people they passed were entirely absorbed by their smartphones. The few who noticed the group quickly averted their eyes when they saw the man in back, the one who radiated barely-contained psychotic-rage looking for a place to explode. They averted their eyes and briskly picked up their pace as they walked past them.

(C) 2025 Eaton Rapids Joe, All Rights Reserved 

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Persephone's Seeds

Five pomegranate seeds amounts to about one teaspoon

In Greek Mythology, Persephone was abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld to be his wife.

Persephone's mother was Demeter who was the goddess of springtime and fertility. In mourning, Demeter cast the world into perpetual winter and famine stalked the land.

Other Greek gods intervened and Persephone was ransomed from the underworld, but there was a catch. While she had been a hostage of Hades, she had eaten five pomegranate seeds. Hades contended that since she had accepted his hospitality, that Persephone OWED him allegiance. After much haggling, Persephone was bound to spend five months of the year in Hades and seven months above ground. Demeter mourned while Persephone was with Hades and winter ruled the land for those five months of the year.

This is my operating model when taking mammon from the government. Ultimately, the price you pay is far in excess of the benefits you gain. If you were a farmer and took out low-interest, government-guaranteed loans, then the government can yank them and force you to refinance at prevailing, distressed buyer rates. If you don't dance to the tune the piper is calling---every minute of the day--- then you can find yourself on your back and spread-eagle.

Even though I am a "practicing" Catholic and attend Mass every Sunday, I find myself lacking sympathy for the plight that various Catholic charities find themselves in. The charities that fly under the banner of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States accepted something like $1.4 BILLION to "relocate" migrants. And now the fire-hose dispensing money stopped and the charities are screaming in pain.

A man, and a church, cannot serve two masters. He cannot serve both mammon and God.

Bringing in migrants lowered wages and increased prices and taxes. Young families find themselves unable to afford to have children. The policies of the Catholic charities of accepting US funding created a moral-hazard for struggling families where aborting unborn children might seem like the only viable solution.

As understood by Catholics, that is not what Jesus would have done.

"What we have got heah, is a failah to Lubricate" *

Mrs ERJ is fond of her remote garage door opener.

It was malfunctioning.

In short, it was binding and then reversing.

It is amazing what a bit of grease in the right places will do to slick things up. As a side-note, one of the polymer skid-plates in the block that skids along the rail may be missing. That should not be a problem if I lube the track annually.

While I was on the ladder I tightened up the chain, aligned the drive unit better and added some deck-screws to the horizontal two-bys that were supporting the power unit.

And once again, my name will be re-engraved in the Hall of Heroes.

Source of quote

Evil acknowledges no limits or boundaries

 

Disclosure: I have not confirmed this claim

Look at the blurb. That was during Obama 2.0  They have been doing this for a while. SOURCE

Last week, Afghanistan released new data showing opium production is surging, information that dovetailed with a widely circulated 2016 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report that showed similar findings. The primary problem is a new strain of genetically modified seed that comes from China, which allows poppies to be grown year round. The so-called Chinese seeds began appearing in 2015, according to the UNODC, leading to a massive 43 percent surge in production last year...
 
Wanna bet USAID financed the genetic modification of those seeds in China and then paid for the distribution? They funded viral gain-of-fuction research in China because it was illegal to do in the US.

Just add that to the number of lives the evil people associated with USAID killed and destroyed through drugs.

The good old days
Remember the good-old-days when we scoffed at the Blacks who claimed    fill-in-blank    drugs and HIV were invented and distributed by the CIA to destroy the Black community.

They weren't "good" because the CIA (or their surrogates) were not doing it. They were the good-old-days because we were naive and walked through a rose-colored fog and could not see the blood.

Top ten countries by prevalence of opiate use
Availability and affordability seems to drive the Top 10
Bottom 10
Lack of affordability and severity of punishment to dealers and users seems to drive the Bottom 10. Last time I looked Cote d'Ivoire and Brunei were very "black".
 
Demand and availability is a chicken-and-egg kind of argument. They co-evolve in a permissive environment.

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

I like this ad

 

Nothing negative. People dealing with their problems. People turning a "problem" into a social event.

I hope Meijers sells a lot of marshmallows, graham crackers and adult beverages.

Kristi Noem

I must confess that it is difficult to blog about the events surrounding Trump's incoming administration, primarily because everything is happening so danged quickly.

I want to jump out and say that I have been very impressed by Kristi Noem's leadership style.

She is a "Go and See" leader.

It is too easy for managers to start believing that the little squiggles swimming across the "dash-board" on your lap-top are reality. It is very seductive, actually. Precise. Unambiguous. No effort required.

If you ever raised animals on pasture, you know "numbers" have limitations. Your neighbor a half-mile to the south may have had 2" of rain and you might have only gotten 1/4". His cattle may be fat-and-sassy and your lambs might have barber-pole worms.

Go-and-See gives you a chance to hear "the rest of the story". Broken equipment issues?  Maybe your guy "Bob" has anger management issues. It is not an equipment or maintenance issue. It is a "Bob" issue. You can't fix it unless you really know what is broken.

And the return-on-investment is beyond calculating in the human dimension. Why should anybody care more about something than the boss cares about it?

I was working third-shift at "the factory" and was rolling out an unpopular policy change from management. After reading the policy to three of my "guys" in one of the far-flung corners of my kingdom, I slipped into the "Metrology" center to tread-water for fifteen minutes.

One of the minions in the Metrology center, a guy named Tony, snidely (I thought) suggested that I was "hiding".

I said "Nope. I am sitting here because there comes a point where any more 'attention' from management is like picking at a zit. Sometimes the best thing a boss can do is to become invisible for a while and let people 'process' the changes."

18 months later that "snide minion" was the Chairman of the Union Local and I found myself in an excruciatingly painful situation with my chain-of-command. I have no hard evidence, but I think Tony told the Plant Manager (two or three links up the chain-of-command) that he (Tony) would be unhappy if I was treated harshly.

Like I said, the return-on-investment of Go-and-See management is beyond calculating in the human dimension. I didn't reel my "guys" in from their jobs and roll-out the changes in my office. I went to their domain (next to the Metrology center) and unrolled it.

If any of my readers work for Kristi, and if you are comfortable with the task, please let her know that I think she is doing a GREAT job.

Lifting notes: 136 x 6. 185 x 6. 205 x 6. 225 x 4 (felt weak, dropped back). 205 x 6 x 4 more sets. Total of 8970 pounds

A little East of Paris: Power-tools


“My name is Gwain McCampbell. Thanks for showing up so quickly.”

The man on the other side of the door sounded surprised. “My name is Cletus Wagner but I go by Chuck or Chuck-Wagon” the man replied.

“Pleased to meet you” Gwain responded.

He looked over at Olivia and saw that she was starting to melt-down.

“Write that down. Write down his name, what time it is, what he says, what the tools sound like. Write down EVERYTHING!” Gwain commanded her.

She immediately put pencil to paper and started writing as if the devil was chasing her pencil.

“Can you tell us what you are doing, sort of give us a running commentary. Especially if you are going to use power-tools that might be noisy?” Gwain asked Chuck, glancing over at Olivia. “We are getting little bit jumpy in here and would appreciate having enough time to stuff our fingers in our ears.”

“Yeah. Sure. No problem” Chuck grunted. “I am scraping as much of the expanding foam out of the cracks as I can with a screwdriver. As warm and as humid as it is, it is setting pretty fast.”

“I am looking for a place to wipe off my screwdriver….I am going to wipe the foam off on the top of my toolbox. Getting the foam off of a painted surface is almost impossible to do without damaging the paint….Ok, I am scraping out some more foam…”

Part way through the evolution, Chuck used his cell-phone to call his boss. Chuck asked him to bring the security tool-bit.

“What is a ‘security tool-bit’?” Gwain asked.

“I need to pull the door-hinges” Chuck told them. “Our hinges have a set-screw to make it difficult for people to break into offices and the set-screw has a weird head you can’t just unscrew it with Allen wrenches.”

A couple minutes later, Chuck’s boss called back. Chuck put it on speaker. “Hey, how urgent is your project? The bit wasn’t in the drawer” the disembodied boss informed them.

“It is urgent” Chuck said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Some pranksters glued a professor and a student into one of the old offices in the Language Arts building.”

“I have you on speaker because the professor said knowing what is going on will help keep them calm” Chuck said.

“Crap!” is all the boss said. Then after a few heart-beats, “I am sending Bernie over with the angle grinder and a bunch of cut-off discs. Try not to set the building on fire.”

Chuck heard Olivia gasp. “He was joking. The cut-off wheel makes sparks but there is nothing flammable within 20 feet of here. It was just a stupid joke.”

Chuck didn’t bother to tell Olivia that the glue WAS flammable. He sent a text to his boss. “SEND SEVERAL FIRE-EXTINGUISHERS!!!” He also didn’t tell the occupants that the old offices had very little ventilation. They were never intended to be occupied for long periods of time with the doors closed. It was Chuck’s opinion that there were some things the people trapped in the room were better off NOT knowing.

Gwain looked at Olivia, thoughtfully.

“A lot of people who have anxiety issues carry a few ‘rescue’ meds. If you have some, this would be a good time to take them” Gwain offered.

Olivia looked surprised. “I think I might have something!” she said. 

She started digging around in her purse and pulled out some small, pink tablets*. “I forgot I had these. They put me right to sleep” Olivia said.

“You might just want to take one… just to take the edge off” Gwain suggested as he handed her an unopened bottle of water.

“OK, Bernie just showed up with the angle grinder. It is going to get loud in there” Chuck informed them.

“What I am going to do is every time I stop grinding, I will wait at least ten seconds before I start again. That way you can talk to me if you need to say something” Chuck said.

“I appreciate the heads-up” Gwain said as he stuck his finger tips into his ears.

Gwain didn’t think the grinder was that loud when Chuck started it. He quickly changed his mind when the cutting wheel touched the steel hinge and made the door vibrate like the head of a drum. The noise was harsh and grating and amplified in the small space.

It was really rough on Olivia.

Chuck stopped cutting after a half minute. “How are you guys doing in there?”

“Not so good” Gwain admitted. “Miss Benavidez just took a tranquilizer. Do you suppose you could just hang-loose for fifteen or twenty minutes so it has time to take effect?”

“Yeah. No problem” Chuck said. “I can get some fans while we are waiting. Oh, and I am getting a crowd of people who want to talk with you.”

The next voice Gwain heard was von Tersch, the Department Head. “How are you doing in there?” von Tersch asked.

“Not so hot” Gwain admitted. “Can you shoo-away the gawkers? There are some things we need to discuss privately.”

Mystified, von Tersch directed Violet to remove the small crowd of on-lookers.

“Ok, we are in the clear, what is up?” von Tersch asked, expecting Professor McCampbell to go high-maintenance on him.

“I am in the office with Miss Benavidez who is one of our Freshmen. Miss Benavidez is experiencing a mental health emergency. We are dealing with it for now, but as soon as this door is popped off, I NEED to get Miss Benavidez to the Student Health building for observation.” Gwain told him.

That was NOT what von Tersch expected, or wanted, to hear.

Gwain continued, “We are going to walk over there and we don’t want to run into anybody who is going to stop us and ask questions.”

“Wouldn’t an ambulance be faster?” von Tersch asked.

Looking over at Olivia, Gwain responded “I don’t think Miss Benavidez will want to be in confined spaces so soon”

Olivia vigorously nodded her agreement. Walking in the open seemed like a great option.

More quietly, Gwain asked Olivia “Do you have any friends you want to walk with. We can try and find them…”

Olivia shook her head “No”. She had no close friends at college, nobody she had confided in, nobody who she could trust to keep her issues secret.

“Miss Benavidez agrees with just me and her walking over to the student health center like it is not a big deal, but I WANT the skids to be greased. I want somebody over there waiting for her at-the-door and I expect her to get treated like royalty” Gwain said.

“Gotchya. Just you and her taking a quiet walk across campus...I might send along a couple of people to clear the path but…” von Tersch said…

“Oh shit! A television truck just parked in front of the building” von Tersch exclaimed.

Gwain looked over at Olivia and repeated his mantra "Who, what, how, where, when and why. Keep writing!"

Looking at the number of pages that she had written, Gwain added "Go back and number each page and circle the number. Put your initials at the bottom. Just do it."

(C) 2025 Eaton Rapids Joe, All Rights Reserved 

* One of the off-label uses for diphenhydramine (also known as Benadryl) in mental health situations is as an emergency sedative. It is commonly available in two-tablet, sealed, tear-open packets.

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Just call me Smoke-stick Joe

The black dot was made by tracing around a dime and then filling it in. It is approximately 3/4" in diameter.

Some "groups" with the Remington 1858 replica.

The taped holes were shot on a sunny day. The not-taped holes were shot on a cloudy day and after the voluptuous curves aft of the rear sight were spray-painted with flat-black paint.

The glare from the sunny day resulted in the group being about 3 inches below the point-of-aim.

The cloudy-day had two holes at 1.2 inches below the point-of-aim and two more at about 2" below the point of aim. It is very easy to remove metal from the front sight to raise where the bullets hit, but it is difficult to add it back. So it pays to take it slow-and-easy and sneak up on perfection. If you have four pieces of information that tell you that you are 1.2" low, 2" low, 3" low and 4" low, the smart money bets on the 1.2" low because it is inexpensive (in terms of time) to correct. If you bet on 4" low and you guessed wrong, you have a tougher situation to correct.

Another thing to consider is that anticipating-the-shot can result in the shooter "pushing" the gun before it goes off and that usually lowers where the bullet hits the target. It pays to look at "low" shots as more suspect than high ones.

My math suggested that I needed to lower the front sight by 0.015 inches to raise the group 1.2 inches at 45 feet.

We will shoot it again on the next cloudy day.

Any guidance from my readers about the very least reflective brand of, "flat" black paint will be appreciated.

Fine Art Tuesday

 


Fritz Müller-Landeck was born in 1865 in Pinnow, Brandenburg Germany. He died in 1942.

He taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich starting in 1889.

His work spanned bright, airy spring-time scenes to dark, brooding forests. While some of his work seem repetitive, original works are a bargain running between $300 and $6000 at auction.








A tip of the old fedora to Lucas Machias

Monday, February 3, 2025

Sticking cuttings

 

I have a plastic tub on a 20W heating mat. I had to fiddle around to get it near 80F, which is optimal for callous formation in many plant species.
 

Sticking some cuttings.

I am trying the modified "fig pop" method. Most of the cuttings are figs with a few plums just for giggles.

The bases of the cuttings are re-cut and I vertically score the bottom of the cuttings for about 3/4". Then I dip them in diluted Dip-n-Gro rooting hormone.

2 cuttings of Florea. The first, ripe, mainseason fruit can be expected to ripen at 1950 Growing Degree Days base 50F SOURCE

3 Rondo de Bordeaux (supposedly a difficult fig to root) 1900 GDD

8 Mt Etna type cuttings 2070 GDD

12 Alma cuttings 2700 GDD (not sure what I am going to do with these. Roots are supposedly more resistant to nematodes than many other varieties.)

8 AU Rosa plums

Actual History vs History Books


 The Flow of HISTORY
 


 

A little East of Paris: A Cask of Armadillos*


Gwain sat in his swivel chair and studied the young woman who had copied her entire paper. It was clear that she had been crying. Gwain was unmoved by the tears. He knew that some people could turn them on-and-off. Some people burst out crying for no reason at all. Gwain wanted to know WHY. Why had she cheated? Why was she crying now?

Olivia Benavidez was the first in her family to go to college. She was the oldest of five children. Her father was a pipe-fitter in an oil refinery in Corpus (Gwain would have to look that up). Her mother was a seamstress and did alterations for weddings and prom dresses.

Gwain cut to the chase. “Why did you cheat? You knew it was wrong.”

Tears started leaking out of Olivia’s eyes. “Because I can’t write!” she wailed.

“What do you mean “You can’t write”?” Gwain asked, bordering on being dismissive.

“I got a “D” in my first writing class” Olivia said. “The harder I tried, the worse the professor graded me. If I do bad in this class, I will be on academic probation, and I don’t know how I will be able to tell my father.”

Gwain got the sense that Olivia was a “daddy’s girl” and her loathing the thought of telling him was not out of fear of punishment, but out of fear of disappointing him.

Gwain hear some minor scraping and squeaking outside his office. He had the door shut to provide (minimal) privacy. He assumed somebody was using an office chair as an ad hoc cart to move something from one office to another.

“Everybody can write” Gwain assured her. “It is something that you will get better at your entire life...but it requires practice and critical appraisal. That means turning in your own work.”

Then Gwain heard some tapping at his door.

“I am in a conference; a PRIVATE conference. Come back in fifteen minutes” Gwain said.

The person who had been tapping at the door did not respond and Gwain assumed they had gone away.

“Let me look up some of your papers from last term” Gwain suggested. “Maybe I can give you some guidance.”

All of the papers were indexed and Gwain had no problems finding her work. Her best grade was a C and he sped-read the first couple of paragraphs. Then he picked a paper from the string of “F”s she had turned in at the end of the term.

“Oh!” Gwain verbalized without knowing it.

“What do you think good writing looks like?” Gwain asked Miss Benavidez.

“I DON”T KNOW!” Olivia wailed in anguish.

“What I see from your prior work is that your last professor was marking you down early in the term because of mechanics. You could have pulled up those papers by at least a grade if you had used MZ Wozzard’s grammar and spell check” Gwain told her.

“Your later papers are almost unreadable” Gwain said, as gently as he knew how. “Your sentences are run-on...maybe the worst I have ever seen. And you use lots of big words that you are clearly not familiar with.”

"I think you were guilty of trying much too hard” Gwain said.

Before Olivia could respond, Gwain heard Cole Byrd’s distinctive voice “Play with the bull, get the horns!”

Cole was the tall, arrogant student who Gwain was expecting to “test” his resolve in regards to students who plagurized work.

Gwain swiftly stood up and strode across the tiny office to confront his unruly student...and he could not open the door.

“Ha, ha, ha, ha!” he was met with a gale of derisive laughter as Gwain rattled the doorknob. And then he heard the sound of running feet.

“Well, that is a fine kettle of fish” Gwain commented as he sat down.

Looking over at Olivia, he intuitively deduced that she was going into a panic attack.

“Oh dear!” Gwain managed to get out. “You are claustrophobic!”

“No” Olivia lied.

Gwain pretended to believe her lie. “Lots of people get stressed when they feel like they don’t have any options.”

“This is what we are going to do. You are going to start journalling RIGHT NOW” Gwain told her, his voice brooking no objection.

He slid a yellow legal pad across his desk toward her. Then he gave her two sharpened HB pencils.

“Who, what, how, where, when, why. Those are the basics” Gwain barked out.

“Write down your name. Write down the time. Write down where we are” he continued.

Olivia, appreciating the distraction, started writing.

“When you are done with those, start writing down how you feel. While you are doing that, I have to make a few phone-calls to get us out of this pickle” Gwain told her.

“Hello, Violet? I seem to have found myself in a bit of a predicament” Gwain told the Department Secretary. “Some students decided this would be a good day to pull a prank and I fear they may have wedged my door shut. Do you suppose you can call maintenance and have them get it unstuck?”

Five minutes later, Gwain and Olivia heard the heavy trudge of work boots.

“Dang! I never seen this before” the masculine voice on the other side of the door stated.

“What haven’t you ever seen before?” Gwain asked.

“It looks like whoever did this to your door planned on keeping you in there for a while. They used a half-dozen shims and it looks like they super-glued them into place. And where they don't have shims they filled with expanding foam. I am not sure how we are going to get you out.”

Gwain heard a pencil snap. He looked over at Olivia and her face was as white as a ghost.

(C) 2025 Eaton Rapids Joe, All Rights Reserved 

*Apologies to Edgar Allen Poe

Sunday, February 2, 2025

Trump's tariffs and timing the bounce

One of my internet buddies is horrified that Trump followed through with his threats to levy tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China.

"Doesn't he know that tariffs generate tariffs in return and destroy the economies of both countries?"

My parroting of the old bromide that the first rule of training a mule is to get its attention was not appreciated.

Part of me understands where my friend is coming from. The Smoot-Hawley Tariffs act of 1930 is credited with increasing the intensity of the Great Depression, increasing its duration and "exporting" the economic downturn to places like Germany (and indirectly) setting the stage for Hitler and the NAZI party.

Theoretically, Trump's tariffs are almost identical to the Nuclear Weapons policy of Mutually Assured Destruction.

If the way for Mexico and Canada to avoid mutually assured economic destruction is to stop enabling economic immigrants who want to violate US laws from passing through their countries, why is that a problem?

Somebody is profiting from the vast subversion of US law. Otherwise it would have been a minor issue that would have been dealt with before midnight of January 20th.

OK, I can see that some will say that Mexico and Canada are not compelled to follow US laws. But do they really want to go down the road of testing Trump's resolve?

On a different note

One can make a compelling case that if the events of 2020 had happened in 2017, the first year of Trump's first term, then he would have handily won reelection.

Few people remember that Ronald Reagan first term was marred by a brutal recession. I graduated in Engineering from Michigan State in 1981 and only 17% of the people in my major got jobs in Michigan. Fortunately for Reagan, it was very early in his first term and the economy was coming roaring back by 1984. The economy was doing OK and the momentum was in the right direction. The United States electorate cheerfully sent Reagan back for a second term.

From a strategic standpoint, it would not hurt Trump if he had a very sharp recession of short duration NOW. In fact, it would probably help his legacy because it would make MAGA very strong for 2028. I don't see the threat of his tariffs triggering such a recession to be a bug...it is more like a feature from the standpoint of timing the bounce.

You can say lots of negative things about Trump and his MAGA brain-trust but even their critics must admit that their organization is very effective at LEARNING and IMPLIMENTING those lessons.

Side-story about recessions

It is like a young man I know who owned a diesel, 4WD truck.  He could not afford to keep it running. It absorbed all of his discretionary money and it was still not reliable transportation. He was trapped by that truck.

His life was on-hold until he confronted the reality of the truck. It was a money-pit that would never offer him a positive return on his dollar invested. Shit happened and he was FORCED to sell his truck.

He dumped the truck and took his loss. He bought a beater, gas-powered car that got 30 mph mpg and never looked back.

Sometimes you just have to let go.

Gazing into my crystal-ball, the S&P 500 could drop by 40% and it would only unwind the stock market back to October of 2022. That is NOT the end of the world, even if it dents some politicians' stock portfolios.

Happy Ground Hog Day

 

Happy Ground Hog Day!

Lifting notes: 6 reps of 135, raw to warm up. 5 reps at 225, felt weak. Dropped down to 185. 4 sets of 6 reps. Finished with another 5 reps at 225. Total weight 7750.

Fired 1858 over the chrony. 25 grains by volume/23 by weight of Triple Seven FFFG gave 749.6 fps five feet from the screens.

Northern Pecans: Expectations

 

According to Dr Bill Reid, a pecan expert who worked (and grows pecans) in Kansas, the limiting factor in growing pecans in the mid-West is not-enough-heat.

The trees can grow as far north as Wisconsin but there will rarely be enough heat to properly ripen the nuts.

It is a reasonable expectation that you will have enough heat to ripen selected varieties of pecans in the regions that are YELLOW, enough heat to ripen many/most pecan varieties in the regions that are ORANGE and to have plenty of heat to ripen all pecan varieties in the areas that are DARK RED.

The areas that are AQUA and BLUE can ripen some pecans, some years but the pecans will be just one-step-up from wild seedlings in terms of size and ease-of-shelling. Frankly, most growers in those areas will be better served by planting Shellbark Hickories and/or named varieties of Black Walnuts

Saturday, February 1, 2025

I thought it was fake news

 

Link to article

This is a real article published by a British-owned, mainstream newspaper.

Bevis and Butthead were not pictured in the actual article, but they came close.

AND

Pecan varieties for the home-orchard or for shade trees

Pecan varieties recommended by the University of Georgia for home-gardens. LINK

"Pecan trees are everywhere in the South, and many years they provide a bountiful crop. This gives the impression that pecan trees are carefree yard trees. Unfortunately, this is not the case. It can be very difficult to get a good crop of pecans without spraying your trees, and this is especially true if you plant commercial cultivars which lack disease and insect resistance.

Probably the biggest mistake a home orchardist can make is to go down to the local hardware store and pick up a 'Desirable' pecan tree
 
"Below is a list of our favorite cultivars for yard trees, and some information on how to take care of your new tree."

 

Recommended by the University of Georgia (listed in alphabetic order)

  • Amling - My favorite home cultivar, high quality medium sized nut.
  • Elliot - A proven scab resistant cultivar, a top choice.
  • Excel - Good pest resistance, large nut with thick shell.
  • McMillan - Nice vigorous tree, good overall pest resistance, medium sized nut.
  • Kanza - Similar to Elliot but cold hardy, good choice for north Georgia.
  • Sumner - Moderate scab resistance, black aphids will be a problem, easier to find.

Pecan Nursery List - Where to get pecan trees
 
ERJ notes that disease pressure is higher as you move south and east. For example, disease pressure is higher on the Coastal Plains of Mississippi and Alabama than it is on the Texas Cross Timbers or Blackland Prairie regions. Consequently, most growers in those regions of Texas have more flexibility in their choices of varieties.

Friday, January 31, 2025

Bio-feedback

Biofeedback

A brazillion years ago, scientists in the west were astounded to find that "swami" from India were able to control the blood-flow within their bodies. It was reported that these Hindu/Buddhist holy-men could vary the surface temperature of their hands and feet, for instance, by more than 10 degrees F.

Fast-forward two decades...

Western scientists discovered that similar results could be obtained using cash-hungry grad-students and ample caffeine. But instead of taking several decades, the results could be obtained within weeks. All the grad students (most of them anyway) had to do was to hold the bulb of a thermometer between their thumb-and-forefinger and "visualize" plunging their hands into hot, soapy water and washing dishes. 

The grad-students used the rise in temperature as-shown by the thermometer as a measure of how vivid their "visualization" was and kept adjusting their "fantasy" to produce better results.

Fast-forward another decade...

Some on-the-ball researcher noticed the correlation between hand-temperature, nasal congestion and some kinds of headaches. After his/her third IPA at the bar, they floated the idea that MAYBE...they didn't need a thermometer. Maybe subjects could "play" with different fantasies (washing dishes, walking across a hot sandy beach, sitting in a sauna, playing hot-potato...) and dial into their most effective fantasy based on how much their breathing eased.

And that could be a path to drug-free easing of head-ache pain.

For obvious reasons, this line of inquiry received no funding and died a sudden death.

Imagine; being able to improve people's ability to breath and to totally crush some kinds of headaches without expensive, purchased, proprietary pharmaceuticals!

A mental exercise

Suppose you have a head-ache or your nose is extremely congested.

You "baseline" how stuffy your nose is and then ignore it.

You sit in your favorite recliner. You swaddle yourself with quilts or fuzzy blankets and put a heating pad around your feet and maybe a hot-water bottle at your hands.

You put on a knit cap.

You visualize flames between your hands and the water-bottle. You mentally form the picture of youself holding your feet up in the air near a wood-stove glowing cherry-red from the heat. You HOLD those images in your head for as long as you can.

And then, when you cannot sustain the image any longer, you ask yourself "Is my nose less congested? Has the pain of my head-ache eased?"

Be gentle with yourself. It may take several tries before you find the secret-sauce in terms of mental images that convince your body to follow your bidding.

Maybe it is stroking the fur of your favorite, childhood puppy.

Maybe it is playing "flinch" with your older brother...and winning.

Only you can figure that out.

Give it a try. It isn't going to cost you anything!

A little East of Paris: A tour of the yard

Gwain noticed two things as he pulled into the driveway in the rented car.

First of all, he saw that their personal car had been delivered while he was at work.

The other thing that he noticed was that Jana was on the front porch drinking iced tea with Diane and a young man of about 15. Gwain’s suspicion that the young man was Diane’s son was confirmed as he walked up to join them.

Frankly, Gwain was gassed. He did not like conflict but had learned over his decades of teaching that avoiding it only worked some of the times. When it didn’t work, it made the conflict much, much worse. So, Gwain had learned to be good at conflict, even though he disliked it. Secretly, he wondered if one of the reasons he disliked conflict was because there was a possibility that he might start enjoying it and seeking it if he because too good at it.

That was not the kind of person he wanted to become.

“Mr. Gwain, this is my son Michael. He is here to see what you want done with your yard” Diane told him.

“Hello, Mr Gwain. I ain’t been walkin’ around this yard since Mr Beals died. He use ta own this house” Michael said.

“Well, then. I suppose we best take a tour. I really haven’t looked over closely, either” Gwain admitted.

With the sounds of Jana and Diane serenely chatting on the porch, Gwain was under no time pressure and could take the time to really SEE the yard.

The first thing he noticed was that there were small signs stuck into the ground at the base of each of the three trees in his front yard. 
Three pecan trees in front of the bungalow. Image taken from "LeFleur", Texas. The trees are planted in a line 20 feet west of the house.

“What is a “Caddo” tree?” Gwain asked Michael.

“That’s a kind of pecan” Michael told him.

“And a Shoshoni?” Gwain asked.

“That’s another kind of pecan” Michael said.

“Hmmm!” Gwain said. “Caddo, Shoshoni, Caddo. Those almost sound like Native-American Tribes. Somebody really liked Caddo pecans*” he mused.

“We all do” Diane volunteered from the porch.

Gwain looked back at the porch, eye-brows arching an unasked question.

“Lots a people have Caddo trees and Mr Beals was real generous about letting neighbors pick his pecans” Diane said.

Then she hastily added “But we ain’t picked nothin' from his yard after he went into the old-folks home. We didn’t have permission.”

Gwain made a snap decision, “We will continue whatever agreement Mr Beals had with you.”

Really, the trees were too big to cut down and he imagined the shade would be appreciated in the summer. Bending over to pick up nuts, or paying somebody to do it wasn’t anything that appealed to him.

Gwain and Michael worked their way around the perimeter fence with Gwain reading the fussily precise, engraved plaques planted near the base of almost every bush.

Gwain had to ask “What are Rabbiteye Blueberries” and “What are Mayhaws” and so on. It only took a bit to realize that nearly every overgrown bush or tree produced some kind of fruit, from Alma figs to Zizi Jujubes. How could he have not known that Jujubes were some kind of fruit? He thought it was just a random name given to a kind of candy.

“How many of these have you tasted the fruit from?” Gwain asked Michael as he gestured grandly toward the sweep of hedges lining the yard.

“Pretty much all of them” Michael admitted.

“What did you think of them” Gwain wanted to know.

“Some ain’t worth eatin’ right off the bush” Michael said. “But my mom can make cobbler outta anything and I can eat that all-day-long.”

“Do you think you can make these bushes look a little bit more civilized and still have them produce fruit?” Gwain adjusted his plan on-the-fly.

“Don’t know why not. They were not this wild-lookin’ when Mr Beals lived here. I suppose I could make them look like I remember them” Michael said. Michael was inordinately pleased that Gwain was talking to him like a fully-grown adult and giving what he said serious consideration.

“Why don’t we make that our plan for the time being” Gwain said. “I want you to make sure to pick up all the branches because Miss Jana’s balance isn’t that good. And I want you to prune out everything with thorns near the grass at least as high up as Miss Jana is tall.”

“I can do that” Michael said.


***

After Michael and Diane left, Jana told Gwain “They don’t have a car. Most of their food comes from the dollar-store.”

“That’s amazing” Gwain said. “Apparently this property is like the Garden of Eden and they were leaving the fruit and nuts for the squirrels, raccoons and possums because they couldn’t get a hold of Mr Beals to get his permission to harvest it.”

“You know, it would be a great help to them if you picked up their groceries in town. The prices really aren’t that bad at the dollar-store but the selection is terrible. Diane has high blood-pressure and everything has too much salt” Jana shared.

“That shouldn’t be too much trouble. I can do it at the same time I buy our groceries” Gwain said, agreeably.

The last thing Gwain did before turning-in for the night was to send Violet an email asking if she knew of anybody who lived a little bit east of Paris. He explained that he had to turn in a rental car and would need a ride home tomorrow.

(C) 2025 Eaton Rapids Joe, All Rights Reserved

* Fifty years ago, Caddo and Shoshoni were the latest-and-greatest pecan varieties available in general commerce. They are both still acceptable varieties. Both are notable for high yields with Caddo being a steady producer year-to-year and Shoshoni having on-years and off-years.

If you were planting pecans today you have more choices with higher disease resistance and more attention to kernel quality and appearance.

Thursday, January 30, 2025

Tom Simons Firearm & Militaria Collection auction

Link to Page 1 of the auction

Seven pages and 336 lots as-of January 30

Random examples

Springfield 45-70 Trapdoor Rifle

Tanker helmet from Spanish Civil War

Powder flasks

Engraved Hopkins Allen revolver

Eickhorn Lionhead sword

16 gauge, double-barreled, Damascus steel shotgun

Colt .31 caliber manufactured 1856

For the record

The third, timed reload of the 1858 New Army took 3 minutes and 5 seconds (including check to see that no caps were in-place).

Improvements that need to be made are to trim the pig-tails on the foam plugs to 1.5" and to have a better system for holding the lead balls. Basically, I need a short chunk of two-by-four with a groove in it long enough to hold seven balls.

Those were the only "bobbles". Once those changes are made and I get a few more untimed reps, I should be at about 2:30 and improvements will come more slowly as it will be primarily from training my muscle-memory.

Armoring daughters against "too-young" sex?

Back in the day, one of our concerns was that our young daughters would sip from the cup of carnal desires at an early age and their lives would be derailed.

We had seen it happen to many other young women. They became pregnant before they graduated from high school. They don't marry the father of the baby. Often they don't graduate from high school. They have multiple "baby-daddies", a term that I loath.

That outcome seems to be what the popular culture is "programming" for women. "Everybody is doing it". "Enjoy sex, it won't hurt you". "You don't need no man".

Not wanting our children's lives to be ruled by the glamor of pop-culture, we studied what would armor our daughters against too-young-sex. This is what we found:

A strong spiritual community

No single armor-plate is total protection, but having the family regularly attend a traditional, Bible-based church is a good start.

A father who is "accessible" to his daughters and involved in their lives

Women crave male attention. If they cannot get it from their father then they will do whatever it takes to get it from boys.

An honorable father

A girl's father is the yardstick that she will will use to measure other men by. Treat your wife with dignity and respect at all times. Your daughter will see that.

As a father, don't send mixed signals. Don't flirt.

Embed your daughter in a group of like-minded girls

Sports are a good outlet for their energy and sports show girls that their bodies are designed for something other than wearing slutty clothing.

Scouting and band (music) are also possibilities.

Hunting and fishing and gardening and canning are good. A sneaky-Pete is likely to think twice if he knows your daughter can kill, field-dress and drag him out of the woods and then turn him into sausage.

As a parent...

The pop-culture is very strong and modern culture tells young people that they are not economic-maturity until they are in their mid-20s. Young people are biologically fully developed to have sex by their early teens but told they "can't marry" until they are in their late-20s. That is totally out of synch. 

As recently as fifty years ago, puberty was significantly later than it is today. Some people blame the availability of calories. Others blame the hormone-like chemicals in our foods. Regardless, puberty is hitting years earlier than it used to. In ancient times, there was a much shorter period between "can do" and when most people got married. 

Two sets of expectations

You can set the expectation that all of your kids will wait until after they are married before they have sex. High expectations are good.

And you are still very likely to not be successful in meeting that expectation.

BUT...you are partially successful if you delay the event by even one partner, if you delay it by even three months. Kids mature quickly and even an additional three-months adds resilience and maturity. And it is my humble opinion that you are likely to delay "the first time" by years if you armor up your daughter(s) and granddaughter(s) as described above.

Any comments from my readers?

Do more employees create delays, or eliminate them?

From frequent commenter Jonathon:

You can't just slash the number of enforcers/ regulators without slashing the number of regulations - if you do, the delays to determine compliance will grow.

It is not my intention to "dog" Jonathon. His comments have always been thoughtful and on-topic. I chose his comment because it is a good point-of-departure for this post.

All bureaucracies expand until they exceed the resources allocated to them (a corollary of Pournelle's Law)

Back-in-the-day I was involved in lean-manufacturing in a small metal-stamping plant. One of the metrics was the dollar-value of the "maintenance materials" stored under the plant roof divided by the annual production. The auditors had a very simple formula for calculating the dollar-value of the "maintenance materials".

They calculated the square-footage of the maintenance parts cribs and multiplied by $250 per square-foot. There was no way to game the metric. The only way to get ahead was to sell more product (difficult) or to shrink the square-footage of the parts cribs (including that room in the basement).

I asked the auditors to defend their stupid-simple method...and to my surprise they were overjoyed to have a teachable-moment.

"Every time there is a break-down and the maintenance supervisor cannot find a part in five minutes, they order new parts from the warehouse. Not just one new part but one-to-use and two to put into storage for "next time". Except the parts crib is so crammed with junk that there is no place to put the two extra parts and so they are stuffed anyplace they can find room. That makes them unfindable the NEXT time that part breaks."

"The stuffed-to-the-gills parts cribs becomes a self-perpetuating disaster. The only way to unwind it is to shrink the cribs and to shrink the size of the shelves so parts so there is room for one, and only one, critical, high-frequency part."

The "cheat" was to take the cheapest, high frequency parts and to zip-tie them to the steel-mesh of the hard-guards of the robotic cells. If you lost an air-cooled welding jumper or "kickless-cable" you had one hanging right there and it didn't get counted against you as inventory.

Some skilled tradesmen had tool boxes filled with "parts". That was a serious no-no. Unlike the replacement parts that were in plain sight (if you were inside the robotic cell), the parts that were in a tool box were not available to other shifts and it counted on the skilled tradesman remembering that he had that exact part during the heat-of-battle.

To everybody's surprise, the plant ran better on a day-to-day basis when the cribs were shrunk to the point where the parts that were required to repair break-downs were exactly where the parts data-base said they would be (Stack, bay, level).

Back to the Federal Workforce

It is my perception that a log of all Federal laws and the regulations documented by the Executive Branch would run to hundreds-of-thousands of pages of single-spaced, 10pt font.

Only a very, very small percentage of those "laws" get "administered and enforced" on a regular basis. Saying that delays will occur because there will be longer waits to ensure compliance...what about the 99.8% of the rules that are assumed to be in compliance or assumed to not be critical? 

What will happen is that the regulators will auto-calibrate and will focus on the (100%-99.9%) that are most critical and delays will remain almost unchanged (after the malcontents get smacked upside the head) for the most critical regulations...but the less critical regulations will get the three monkeys and things will move faster.

My most recent interactions with public-sector employees (state level) have been that they petrified when they have to make a decision because they know that they will be second-guessed and criticized. What that tells me is that all of the other employees who are second-guessing and talking-shit don't have enough of their own work to do...not if they have time to rehash everybody elses' work stream.