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.

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.

Thin the herd

America's (and Britain's) only chance to avoid following the Weimar Republic's economic trajectory is to vigorously grow our economy.

That means chopping back regulations.

Regulations are "Default: STOP". That is, "Stop until you satisfy the regulator that you are complying with their understanding of the regulations".

Every stop creates a delay-to-market. Every delay creates cash-burn as staff is paid, interest is accrued. Every delay-to-market allows competitors advantage and increases the risk of your product/service appearing dated and low-feature.

Regulators don't care. Nope. In fact, stopping people is how they demonstrate that they are "needed" and "necessary".

There are far too many laws on the books. They are contradictory and ambiguous. Judicial interpretations twist and bend the original intent. There is far too much governmental meddling in the economy. The US auto industry pissed away $200 Billion in trying to meet EV mandates. That amounts to $1800 per household. For one industry. For one requirement.

The regulatory process is the choke-point that is strangling American innovation.

The only way to loosen the noose of regulation is to thin-the-herd. Eliminate departments. Comb the lice out of the scalps of productive people. Throw them into the fire (figuratively speaking).

Lifting notes: (135 * 6) + ((225 *6) * 4) = 6210 for dead lifting session.

A little East of Paris: Consequences

On his way out the door after his last class, Gwain swung by the department office and asked if Dr. von Tersch was available.

“Nope, honey. He is up in Lawton today. Why, whatchya need?” the Department head’s secretary asked.

Glancing down at the desk go make sure he had her name correct “Well, Violet, I wanted to give him a heads-up about some disciplinary action I was going to take. I don’t want to catch him flat-footed.”

“I am sure that any decision you make, Professor McCambbell, will be fine with Dr von Tersch” Violet assured him.

Gwain sincerely doubted that, but he also knew that long-time secretaries had an intimate understanding of their boss’s personality and values. Well, he was a tenured professor back at Asphodel. He was comfortable making those kinds of decisions but thought it was a matter of courtesy to let people know when those decisions were likely to cause blow-back.

“Thank-you, Violet. I will proceed with confidence” Gwain assured her.

***

As Gwain was paying Diane the $75 he owed her, he asked “Can you recommend somebody to do some yard-work? Everything is so overgrown, and I don’t have any tools. I just need somebody to chop it all back and to keep the grass mowed.”

“My son is always looking for work” Diane told him. “That is something he can do.”

“What will he charge?” Gwain asked.

“I can’t say for sure. You will have to ask him. Do you want me to send him on over?” Diane asked.

“Yes. Please do” Gwain said. He wondered if he would be liable if the boy cut himself with power equipment while working on Gwain's yard. That was something he never had to worry about before.

Going into the bungalow, Gwain asked Jana how her day went. She informed him that it had gone swimmingly.

Then Jana asked how Gwain’s day had gone and she learned about his dilemma.

***

The next day Gwain’s classes were nearly full and most of the students were hostile.

Gwain put the University policy on plagiarism on the overhead with the pertinent sections highlighted.

“Those of you who received a “D” earned it by turning in material that you copied from sources that you did not properly attribute it to the source. The school policy on copying without attribution is crystal clear and I am being lenient by not giving you an “F” and turning you in for Departmental discipline.

“In accordance with school policy” Gwain said as he changed the overhead projection “I will allow you to re-write the paper and the two grades will be averaged and that is what will be used when I compute your final grade.”

“Those of you who received an “F” earned that grade because the entire paper was copied-and-pasted and then turned in as your own work. You will NOT be allowed to submit a second paper unless you meet with me during my office hours.”

Several students wanted to argue with him, but most of the students slammed shut their books, stuffed them in their backpacks and angrily departed the classroom. If they hurried, there was still a few days in which to transfer out of his class.

By the end of the class session, the room was only twenty-percent full. Benevolently looking over the students, Gwain said “Open your books to the story of Sisyphus…”

After his second class, Gwain swung by his “office” where three angry men and a woman were waiting for him.

“Come in” Gwain said.

“One at a time or together?” the tallest man challenged.

“Your choice” Gwain said, projecting a calm he did not feel.

 

As the four crowded into Gwain's office, Gwain directed them "Leave the door open."

 

"Why should we leave the door open. We have a right to privacy!" the tallest student said.

 

"With four of you showing up together, you have no expectation of privacy and I expect it will be easier for you to remain courteous with the door open.

“You can’t give us “F”s because you don’t have any proof” the tallest student said.

“Pre-law?” Gwain asked.

“What?” the tall student asked, taken by surprise.

“Are you majoring in pre-law?” Gwain asked.

“Maybe” the student admitted.

“This isn’t a criminal matter. I have no obligation to give you proof. You did it and you know you did it” Gwain said.

“I will let you submit another paper but it has to be 100% your own effort and no more than 10% of the text can be quote-attributable material-unquote and it must all be attributed in the style defined in the class syllabus” Gwain said. 

Studying their faces, Gwain could sense the power dynamics. The woman was clearly the tall-student's girl-friend. The two shorter men were “followers”. The tall student was the crafty one.

 

There was little doubt in Gwain's mind that the taller student would have no qualms in using the minions to "test" Gwain's resolve, kind of like the Soviets using POWs to clear mine fields.

“Since all four of you showed up together I assume you were all working together. If I detect any plagiarism or cheating in ANY ONE of your four papers, I will turn over ALL FOUR of your original papers along with my recommendations that the University policies be followed to the letter over to the Dr von Tersch” Gwain concluded.

 

The Large Language Model AI indicated that the same four exams had been turned in, verbatim, at several different colleges across the country and that most of the students had been affiliated with the Gamma-Gamma-Psi fraternity.

 

Gwain had not been surprised. Gamma-Gamma-Psi had a reputation for being a "party" frat and was jokingly nicknamed Gotta-Grab-Thigh by the more academically-minded fraternities.

***

On his way out of the building, Gwain swung by the office once again.

Violet, looking up from her keyboard gave him a wink. “I see you have been makin’ some waves.”

“Does von Tercsh need to talk with me?” Gwain asked.

“Nope. He figures you are doin’ what he hired you to do” Violet told him.

“I have the names of four students that I am curious about. I was wondering if you could give me a little bit of background on them?” Gwain said.

“Be happy to, if I know them” Violet said.

 

Next Installment

 

(C) 2025 Eaton Rapids Joe, All Rights Reserved

To Measure is to Manage (Slow makes smooth. Smooth makes fast.)

Those of you who have been following this blog for a while know that I am very interested in "throughput" or the rapid and efficient production of things.

You also know that one of my buddies recently purchased a replica of an 1858, blackpowder, muzzle-loading pistol.

This is a time for honesty

The first time I timed myself reloading the weapon was the second time I loaded all six chambers. It took me 14 minutes.

Disgusted, I made some changes. I dumped the 25 grains-by-volume (23 grains by weight) of Triple Seven FFFG powder into six, empty .223 Rem cases and stuffed the mouths with foam, hearing-protection ear-buds. I did the same for the 1.0cc of filler. And rather than using my finger to wipe lube around the mouth of each chamber, I spent the big dollars and bought Wonder-wads.

I was able to beat the time down to five minutes and I cheated. The 1.0cc of filler was too much when combined with the 3mm thick wonder wads. I stopped the clock after chamber #3 and had to really crank the loading lever down so the ball would clear the rear of the barrel. Ooops!

If my buddy is agreeable, the next timed-trial will use 0.5 or 0.7cc of something  round like millet or turnip seeds. I had used long-grain rice and that did not flow well. I will also put the filler in a different case (maybe .38 Special) than the powder so I can reload totally by feel.

Looking at the labor content of the tasks, any shooter who can reload all six chambers in two minutes or less (twenty seconds a chamber) doesn't need to apologize to anybody. That time does NOT include the percussion caps. 

Conceivably, it might even be possible to get it down to reloading all six in a minute but that will involve a multi-pocket apron with each component in its own pocket. That might work for "competitions" but would be impractical for somebody just rambling about the woods enjoying the glories of the autumn.

Debt

These are heady days for conservatives who are rejoicing as the Progressive over-reach is beaten back on a daily basis.

It is easy to forget that there is a tremendous amount of fragility locked into the system, fragility that cannot be surgically excised. Foremost among those fragilities is the the amount of US debt relative to the size of the productive (as opposed to the reallocative) economy.

Some people think we are doomed. They claim that we are too far into the quicksand to escape.

My personal opinion is that there is still a chance of the US economy out-growing the risk but that is totally dependent on resources NOT being pissed down rat-holes. Rather, those resources must be directed to enterprises that create value.

That applies to the resources we have at our disposal in our personal lives. Do the activities we choose make us healthier or less healthy? Do they increase our character and elevate the opinion others hold of us or do they erode our character and diminish our status in the eyes of our families, neighbors and friends?

Do we squander thousands of dollars on vacations where all we acquire are some pictures, a sunburn and maybe a tattoo, or do we strengthen our social equity by visiting family or do we acquire new skills (or hone old skills)?

Have you been putting off basic repairs on your house, maybe just out of a sense of inertia? This might be the lull before the storm. Good doors. Good locks. Clear out brush near your house. Is your roof "good" for the next fifteen years or more?

Are you mentoring any young people? If they are not volunteering to be mentored, maybe you hire them to do some of the more physical parts of your hobby and do a lot of explaining the "why" of what you do.

For the record: Quicksilver got her first lesson in recognizing rabbit tracks and following them today.

Scooby Doo and Ghosts

Humor

A young man from a small town in Michigan went to the University of Michigan. He was the first person from his very small high school to attain that honor.

He was sitting in a vast room with hundreds and hundreds of other Freshmen when the Dean of the College addressed them.

"I have a huge interest in the paranormal" the Dean said. "I ask every incoming Freshmen class these questions..."

"First, I want every one of you to stand up" the Dean told them.

"I want those of you who believe in ghosts to remain standing and everybody else to sit down" the Dean continued.

The young man was surprised when a third of the class sat down.

"Those of you who have ever SEEN ghosts, I want you to remain standing and the rest of you to sit down" the Dean said.

The young man was even more surprised when only about 10% of the class remained standing.

"Those of you who have TOUCHED a ghost, I want you to remain standing" the Dean said.

The young man was starting to get nervous. There were only three others who remained standing and the Dean was visibly excited.

"Those of you who have made love to a ghost, remain standing..."

The young man looked around and realized that he was the only one still standing and the Dean was beside himself with excitement.

"Young man. Come up here! I have been asking those questions for 40 years and you are the first one to remain standing for the last question."

Quite awkwardly, the young man worked his way to the aisle and then walked up to the dais with 599 sets of eyes on his back.

"Can you tell me, young man, could you tell how long the ghost had been dead?" the Dean asked.

The young man's face flushed. "Ghost?  I thought you said "GOATS"!"

Scooby Doo and Ghosts

Quicksilver is suddenly interested in ghosts. She gets worked-up and is hard to settle for her nap.

Today I told her that it cost a lot of money to feed ghosts. I told her that if we got a ghost we would have to get rid of Zeus because we couldn't afford to feed both of them.

We will see how long that works.

Peaches

I am attempting to graft a cadence of peaches ripening on 5-to-10 day intervals.

One of the EXCELLENT things about growing fragile fruits like raspberries and peaches and plums is that the grower can harvest the fruit at the very peak of perfection rather than picking it green so it can be shipped to market like so many billiard balls.

The peach connoisseurs in the family tell me "Red Haven", "Red Haven", "Red Haven". They latched onto "Red Haven" like a pitty-lab cross staking claim to the carcass of a bicycle tire.

I know better than to argue with the "customer" but it is nice to have options.

Red Haven is an excellent peach but it ripens during the first week of August (in Southern Michigan) and that is right in the middle of the dog-days of summer around here. Ideally, I would have different peach varieties ripening at approximately one-week intervals. Not just to provide a long-window of perfectly ripe peaches, but to create a back-up plan in case the canners "miss the window" on the Red Havens. Life happens.

The challenge is that there are LOTS of outstanding varieties that ripen three weeks after Red Haven but darned few that ripen in that window between five days and fifteen days after Red Haven. And of those that exist, many of them are proprietary, Patented varieties that are difficult for non-commercial growers to get trees of.

The list of peaches (a late addition to the 2025 planting plans) are:

• Red Haven
• Challenger:  Maturity 7 days after Red Haven (*sooner in hot climates)
• Contender:  Matures 15 days after Red Haven*
• Cresthaven: Matures 21 days after Red Haven*

I have scion for Contender and Cresthaven but am looking for scion of Challenger.

I am coming to the realization that 10 seedling peaches might not be enough as mission-creep rears its head.

I realize that I am deeply blessed to have these kinds of problems. Very few people have enough room to plant four different kinds of peach trees.

More than you ever wanted to know about Head Impact dynamics

Information from a previous part of my life:

The original Head Injury Criteria later used in Federal Motor Vehicle Standard 208 was generated by dropping embalmed cadaver heads onto unyielding, flat surfaces, striking the subject on the forehead. The WSTC (Figure 2-1) provides a relationship between peak acceleration, pulse duration, and concussion onset. In the original work, skull fracture was used as the criterion for determination of concussion and the onset of brain injury. The final form of the Wayne State Tolerance Curve was published by Gurdjian (Gurdjian 1963, Patrick 1963). In its final form, the WSTC was developed by combining results from a wide variety of pulse shapes, cadavers, animals, human volunteers, clinical research, and injury mechanisms. Skull fracture and/or concussion was used as the failure criterion, except for the long duration human volunteer tests in which there were no apparent injuries.

The math behind the Head Injury Criteria

In English rather than mathematical expression, a sliding time window 0.032 seconds long is moved along the acceleration trace for the crash-dummy's head. The average acceleration for the 0.032 second window is raised to the 2.5th power. The maximum HIC value for the entire time-trace is the HIC reported for the event.

The Physics

Brains are jelly-like and a shock is treated like a center-pass filter. A very fleeting shock, even though very high, does not last long enough to cause the entire brain to slosh across the cranial cavity.

It is counter-intuitive, but the primary damage to the brain is not on the high-pressure side. Being jelly-like, or liquid(ish), the brain is resistant to pressure as long as it doesn't squirt out of the skull. The primary damage occurs on the low pressure side where dissolved gasses expand explosively and rupture cells and blood vessels. 

Consequently, a blow to the forehead can cause damage to the rear of the occipital lobe processes visual signals and works cooperatively with many other brain areas. The occipital lobe plays a crucial role in language and reading, storing memories, recognizing familiar places and faces which explains why people with closed-head injuries often have slow and halting speech.

More Physics 

In a frontal car accident there are three collisions.

The first collision is when the bumper hits the object in front of the vehicle. The motor compartment side rails start to crumple and the body of the vehicle starts to slow down. Meanwhile, the bodies of the occupants and the engine merrily fly through space, not yet "knowing" that the body is slowing down.

Then the engine hits the object and starts loading into the motor compartment side rails and adds to the decel rate. The decel rate increases even as the occupants continue sailing across the free-space within the passenger compartment.

If there were air-bags, the bags already fully inflated and are starting to deflate. Air bags dissipate energy as the occupants hit them and air (hot CO2, actually) is squeezed out through the loose weave of the fabric. If the bags did not deflate in a controlled manner, the passenger's heads would bounce and be subjected to much higher rates of force.

The body of the car + engine is REBOUNDING from the wall when the occupant(s) finally impact the interior of the vehicle. It is very possible for a 30 mph collision to turn into a 37 mph net velocity change as the vehicle bounces backwards. That is a big deal because energy increases with the square of the velocity and a 20% increase in net velocity change means the restraint systems need to deal with 44% more energy.

What I see when I watch this image is that the man's head bounces after the first impact. That tells me that he didn't smash his teeth/jaw at that point. It also tells me that his head saw very high g forces and he is a likely candidate for the morgue. No airbags or plastic deformation of a steering wheel to help him out, there. 

The second impact had no head bounce and the energy was probably dissipated by jaw fracture.

A little East of Paris: Diane

 

Part of the deal with the University was that Gwain would IMMEDIATELY pick up two classes. The previous instructor had been incarcerated and was not expected to be available for an as-yet determined amount of time.

Even though the semester was already in-session, the University was able to shuffle assignments around and arrange for two back-to-back classes in college-level writing for Gwain to teach.

That meant that Gwain would be gone for at least three hours, three days a week and five hours on the day he had office-hours.

Gwain walked in to meet his first class. Only a third of the students bothered to attend. He expected that to change after he had graded the papers his predecessor left him. Both classes had two sets of ungraded papers. In all, he had 160, 800-to-1200 word essays to grade.

Gwain launched into his monologue about how the Greek Myths were one of the ties that bound the far-flung Greek colonies together for three thousand years. The Greek colonies ranged from the Straits of Gibraltar to  north shores of the Black Sea and were able to maintain their culture in spite of vastly different local cultures.

He rhapsodized about how itinerant storytellers repeated and refined the stories with every retelling, moving from community-to-community like a needle stitching panels in a quilt together. He talked about how stories, myths, evolved to make them easier to memorize and to embed moral lessons within them, lessons that every person who heard them could walk away with some greater understanding of humanity...

***

Diane Nance rang the doorbell and waited for Jana to invite her in.

Gwain had gotten her name by advertising for an "Adult sitter" on SpaceBook Markets.

Not only had Diane been the first to respond, but she lived only two blocks way from where Gwain and Jana now lived.

Diane was a black woman of about 40 looking to pick up a few extra dollars while her two children were at school. Gwain's offer of $25 an hour, cash payable the day she earned it, and the timing of the hours needed was very agreeable to her.

Jana bid her to enter.

Jana and Diane had a conversation the day that Gwain had hired her. Their chemistry seemed compatible.

Jana was wary. There is only so much you can learn about somebody in a fifteen minute conversation.

"I hope you don't mind if I do a few dishes and some light-picking up while I am here?" Diane ventured. "I have to move around or time goes really slow for me."

Diane's use of "slow" instead of the more proper adverb "slowly" grated on Jana's nerves. It was just one more indignity that she would have to get used to.

"I don't mind" Jana said. She felt strangely intruded upon by another woman doing domestic work in her house, her personal space. Then it hit her, Jana was already thinking of this small bungalow as her own space.

"Where do you keep the laundry baskets?" Diane asked.

"I think there one is in one of the back-rooms. I haven't been able to really look the place over" Jana apologized.

"Tell you what" Diane said. "Why don't I put you in the transfer chair and you can keep me company and look things over while I tidy up. You prolly have ways you want clothes sorted and folded and ain't nobody does things exackly the same."

Even though she was tired, Jana thought that was a good idea.

Jana asked Diane about the neighbors and the local businesses. And while Diane had something to say about every one of them, Jana noticed that Diane very carefully didn't say anything negative about any of them in any kind of direct way.

When Jana asked about the hardware store, Diane said "If you are in a hurry, you best go in the morning cause they a lot slower after lunch."

After a moment of thought, Jana realized that Diane was speaking in a kind of code. She was saying that the owner was likely to have a few drinks at lunch.

Once Jana had figured out Black-Southern-Genteel, she was able to glean far more information from Diane's descriptions.

"You know, only about a third of what you are telling me is sticking" Jana said with a sigh. "I think we need to have this conversation again after I meet some of these people.

Diane nodded her head in agreement. "Won't be no problem. Ain't much to talk about round here 'cept people."

Glancing at the clock, Diane said "Where do time go? I already been here for two hours and it is almost time for The Price is Right. I don't watch much TV, but I do like that show."

***

The Dean at Asphodel's College of Liberal Arts had extended Gwain some professional courtesies. One of them was continued access to the Large Language Model Artificial Intelligence paper-grader that had become a mandatory part of grading papers at Asphodel.

Gwain moved the papers from the shared-docs folder where students submitted electronic copies of their papers and placed them into the "hopper" of the LLMAI. Gwain accepted most of the radio-buttons to the defaults but made the confidence level a very-high 99.5% and clicked the button to identify where the oldest instance of the copied text came from and to identify other cases where that "snip" had been flagged.

Gwain had no illusions about what it was going to return. When Asphodel had first subscribed to the LLMAI, they quickly found that 70% of the students were violating the school policy on plagiarism. Some of the students were lifting a paragraph or two, verbatim, from published academic papers. Others were copying-and-pasting entire papers.

That caused a major crisis as the school policy clearly stated that plagiarism was grounds for dismissal. No University can survive if it eliminates two-thirds of its paying students.

Gwain's second class focused on contemporary short-stories. Gwain had never encountered the authors before, so he had a bunch of reading to do. First on the list was Curtis's A Learning Experience and Lawdog's Memories, Like Dust. Modern writers had very strange names. He just hoped "Lawdog" was not a rapper.

Next installment

(C) 2025 Eaton Rapids Joe, All Rights Reserved

Let the Crossfit Games Begin!

 

Diving

Bull-fighting

Kinetic make-up application

Eye-hand-mouth coordination

Never trust a pinko

Pole dancing

Nutrition

Hydration

Gymnastics

High Hurdles

Triathalon

Crossfit offers something for everybody

Enough? (1858 New Army Remington replica)

"Enough" is a powerful concept.

Figuring out how much is "Enough" is not as obvious as it appears.

1858 New Army Remington

I got to shoot an 1858 New Army Remington replica today.

It was the Pietta version and we had some nipple-cap issues, but that was anticipated. The owner has new nipples for #11 caps (the easiest ones to find locally) coming. Five of the nipples cheerfully held their caps. One would not.

By-the-numbers:

Source

A .357 Magnum case holds 1.7cc of volume which converts to "25 grains by volume" of blackpowder.

25 grains of FFFG Triple Seven "by volume" can be expected to push a 140 grain, .454" lead, round-ball somewhere between 750 and 790 fps. 25 grains-by-volume of FFFG pencils out to 300 rounds per pound of Triple Seven.

35 grains of Pyrodex P can be expected to push the same ball at 900 fps.

The first load is the equivalent of a wadcutter target load out of a .38 Special and the second load is the equivalent of a "combat" load out of a snubby .38 Special.

A 1858 with a 5-1/2" barrel tips the scale at 40 ounces which is almost exactly twice what a steel-framed, .38 Special "snubby" weighs.

The recoil on the 1858 is negligible, the sights are "fine" and the trigger is lovely.

If a .38 Special loaded with wadcutters is "just enough", it is hard to argue that a 0.45" diameter ball of the same weight and velocity is totally inadequate. Even if you might wish for a bit more, it still beats a harshly worded memo when things go bump-in-the-night.

The Pietta 1858 has parking-notches in the cylinder between the nipples. You can park your hammer in any of the notches to keep it off a percussion cap and avoid accidental firing if the weapon is dropped.

If push-came-to-shove and the mission was to shoot across the width of your bedroom at somebody who busted through your bedroom door, an 1858 New Army replica in .44 would be "enough" if you could keep the caps on the nipples. By the same token, if you needed to pot a deer at 15 yards, you would still have "enough" as long as you restricted yourself to broadside "lung" shots.

It will never be a "Magnum". It doesn't have enough steel in the right places to support those kinds of pressure. But within the envelop of what it is, it performs well.

As a side note, if you look at the cost of shooting one of these beasts on a per-hour basis, you will be hard pressed to find a more economical gun. It is entirely possible to burn through 100 rounds of ammo in a semi-auto in ten minutes if you have enough magazines. That same 100 rounds would last you for HOURS and HOURS in a replica blackpowder pistol. And since you have so much invested in loading it, you are more likely to slow-down and attempt to learn more each time you pull the trigger.

Bonus video Shooting pop cans at 21 yards after adjusting the sight. Not me nor my buddy. Just a video found on the internet.

Notes: The chamber for the Pietta is 22.8mm from the mouth to where the wall breaks for the angle of the drill bit. It measures 11.2mm in diameter.

Internal volume is 2.2CC plus the volume for the drilled-and-tapped hole for the nipple.

1.7CC FFFG Triple Seven is 25 volume-grains equivalent and weighs 22.7 grains by weight. 23 grains of FFFG Triple Seven + 0.7 CC of turnip seeds plus a 3mm greased felt wad (0.3CC volume) plus a 0.451" pure lead ball makes a good "package".

Fee, fie, foe, fum; I smell a dum-dum

 

Secretary Lenawee County Democrats- Joaquin Ramos

Joaquin Ramo

Age: 27. 

Occupation: Currently unemployed. 

Spouse/kids: None. 

Government experience: My experience with government has come from my activism on local and national campaigns in Adrian, Lansing and Detroit. I have observed and logged the city government for more than five years and have attended every meeting possible. I have experience working with city and state governments through numerous boards and groups, including All About Adrian, Housing Help of Lenawee, Lenawee Poor People's Campaign, Human Resources Commission, Adrian District Library, Continuum of Care  SOURCE

***

Probably off of his meds.

The backyard flock

I got a text from Southern Belle. Her family likes to eat eggs and the price is skyrocketing. Some of that is due to flocks getting culled due to bird flu. Some of it is due to Michigan's Democrats aping California and outlawing birds kept in a cage-free environment. 

As a side-note, I have to wonder if the cage-free environment accelerates the spread of bird-flu. In general, any kind of fire-break is helpful in slowing the spread of epidemics while any kind of mobility is bad.

Southern Belle asked for a brain-dump.

***

Hello Southern Belle:

There is nothing wrong with having several breeds in your home flock. I think it adds visual interest.

At their peak, you will probably get five eggs every week from each hen. Four hens will give you twenty eggs. Six hens will give you thirty eggs.

You do not need a rooster.

Breeds

#1  ISA Brown. In my opinion, this is the best choice for a backyard flock in our part of Michigan.

#2 Black-sexlink is a close second place

#3 Tied for third-place are Barred Rocks, Black Australorps, Rhode Island Reds and Gold/Silver Lace Wyandottes

Honorable Mention: Americana (Green egg layers). They have better free-range "survivability" because they are a little more paranoid than the breeds listed above. Unlike the other breeds, Americanas are not standardized for colors so you will automatically get a mixed looking flock.

General notes: 

White birds tend to get picked-off first if you let them free-range.

Breeds with large "combs" (the pink growth on the top of their head) suffer in cold weather.

"Roll-out" egg nests are a wonderful thing. Even better if you can make it so you have a trap-door in the side of your coop and can access the eggs from outside.

If bird flu hits the local hatcheries then chicks will become very hard to get and will be expensive. Beat the rush.

You can buy one-year-old birds that are molting. There is a local guy who "dumps" his flock this time of year. He charges $15 a bird.

Consider ducks!

#1 Khaki Campbell duck

#2 Indian Runner Ducks, available in multiple colors. Some people call them "The Bowling-pin Duck"

Ducks can be superior to chickens for free-ranging. They are more effective at catching bugs. They are more resistant to the cold. They WILL foul any open water, so maybe not the best choice if you have a swimming pool.

Lifting notes: 135 X 6 raw. 205 X 6 with straps. (225 x 6) x 3. Total of 6090 pounds

How much blood can a human lose?

The average adult's body contains between 4.5 liters (roughly 9 pints) and 5.5 liters (roughly 11 pints) of blood.

Blood doesn't have to leave the body to become unavailable. Your circulatory system can leak into your abdominal cavity and thoracic cavity in large enough quantities to be a problem. Dehydration can also impact blood volume.

Loss of 15% is likely to lead to dizziness.

Ötzi, the Tyrolian Ice-man, had many injuries at the time of his death, including a severed left subclavian artery. The dude went down fighting!

Loss between 20% and 30% is enough to generate a traumatic response sometimes called Hypovolemic Shock. Symptoms of Hypovolemic Shock include:

• rapid breathing
• weakness or fatigue
• confusion
• cool, pale skin (caused by the body shutting down blood-flow to non-critical organs)
  
• sweaty, moist skin
• anxiety or unease
• low urine output
• drowsiness
• unconsciousness

Key Point: It doesn't matter how strong of a will you have, once you start experiencing Hypovolemic Shock you stop being able to take care of yourself. You need outside help.

At 40% blood-loss the body runs out of "tricks" to maintain function of critical organs. Those organs start dying and the patient is in dire danger.

At about 50% blood-loss, damage is irreversible and even if you are given massive transfusions of whole blood, there is no guarantee that you will live. (SOURCE)

That may be counter-intuitive to athletes. "I can exercise for hours at 15 Metabolic Equivalents and you are saying that my body only has 100% redundancy?"

The issue isn't the number of red blood cells or the efficiency of your lungs exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide. The problem is INADEQUATE VOLUME. It is like a bicycle chain that is too short. It doesn't matter how strong the chain is if it isn't long enough.

Protocols for first responders when the patient has lost a lot of blood is to push volume extenders like Ringer's or plasma. They will even put a blood-pressure cuff around the bag to generate positive-pressure to push it into the patient's vein.

The Golden Hour

In Emergency Medicine there was a (now partially discredited) concept called The Golden Hour that was suggested by R. Adam Cowley at University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center.

The concept was that if you can get the patient to the Emergency Room with a pulse within the first hour of when the trauma was experienced, there is a darned good chance that he can be saved.

Consider the body-parts that can be damaged by trauma. Some of them are so critical that even if the patient was already coming through the doors of the Emergency room, doctors would not be able to save the patient...massive damage to the Central Nervous system or a severed aorta, carotid or femoral arteries for instance. Carotid and femoral get mentioned because they are not only large, but they run close to the skin.

(The Golden Hour might be a good example of the Survivor Bias. Your chances of surviving are much higher if you don't die before you get to the Emergency Room. Not controlling for those "suspended data points" can bias perceptions)

Due to the rapidly branching nature of arteries, most of the high-pressure side of your circulatory system are smaller and often run close to a bone. They are still too big for your body's clotting system to seal but you have a more time before you exsanguinate. Since these smaller arteries are dispersed, it takes a lot of cutting or punctures to sever enough of these to come anywhere close to the volume potential of a femoral artery, for instance.

I am pretty sure that I have at least three readers who work in Emergency Medicine. Please feel free to pick this post to pieces.

Ten characteristics of highly prepared people

 https://www.theorganicprepper.com/10-daily-habits-prepared-people/

• Highly prepared people have a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C....
• Highly prepared people are masters of their emotions, not slaves of them
  
• Highly prepared people are able to think analytically even during stressful times
• Highly prepared people carry basic-necessities with them...always
• Highly prepared people can solve problems using ubiquitous resources
• Highly prepared people live a skills-based life-style
• Highly prepared people are physically active
• 
  
   
• Highly prepare people value items that have multiple uses
• Highly prepared people abhor waste
• Highly prepared people exhibit an exceptionally high degree of situational awareness 

Note, descriptions slightly modified to suit my tastes.

The power of blackpowder

 

And for those who doubt the power of cap-and-ball, blackpowder pistols.

Three hundred thousand killed with blackpowder muzzleloaders and two-hundred-seventy thousand wounded Source

On a more serious note, blackpowder killed and wounded over a half-million soldiers in the US Civil War. By modern standards, the loads used in the Civil War were pretty wimpy, usually 60 grains of blackpowder behind 510 grain, 0.58" diameter miniball. That produced a very pedestrian 975 feet-per-second.

A little East of Paris: Moving

“What do you think about spending the rest of the winter in Texas?” Gwain asked.

“Texas is the last place on earth I would ever want to go” Jana replied.

And on that note, a Nutritionist and an Occupational Therapists entered the room and interrupted the conversation.

The next four weeks were a blur. Jana learned how to stand up (her muscles were as weak as water) and how to safely sit down. Gwain learned how to use equipment to lift and toilet her and how to bathe her.

Seven weeks after Jana’s slip-and-fall, they were sitting in Detroit Metro Airport with tickets to Texas. Janna was sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a helmet. She felt like everybody was looking at her. Her emotions wheeled between mortification and anger, depression and a need to lash-out, helplessness and the tiniest glimmer of hope.

On the one hand, she resented that Gwain had not consulted with her. On the other hand, she realized that she would not have been able to offer any useful advise; the doctors had been very clear about three points: Her thinking would remain wooly-headed for the immediate future, her emotions would remain volatile and that another blow to her head would kill her. Not “might kill her” but WOULD kill her. Hence the padded helmet.

During the four weeks of therapy Jana learned how the University had closed-ranks to support her and Gwain. Colleagues had taken their classes including the grading of the end-of-term papers. Their peers had discretely reached out to professional associates and alumni in southern states where ice was a rarity and asked about positions and housing.

It was the Dean of the College who found the house in Lefleur, Texas and had made inquiries at the local Texas A&M about positions for Gwain.

Jana had always thought the Dean to be a bombastic buffoon with a forced hale-fellow-wellmet demeanor. In their moment of need, Jana was forced to admit that perhaps there was more to the Dean than her emotional reaction to his mannerisms.

Jana really didn’t have a choice. She was going to Texas.

***

LeFleur, Texas (Jana insisted on spelling it with a capital “F”) was a little bit east of Paris, Texas and was one of a string of towns that had grown up along New Boston-to-Savoy railroad. They would have died when the railroad closed except that Texas Highway 82 paralleled the old rail-line. Businesses switched from servicing the railway to serving commuters and truckers who were going to Paris.

The rail-bed had been converted to the Northeast Texas Trail.

Jana’s new home was a single story, 920 square-feet bungalow with fifty year-old pecan trees in the front yard. There was a vacant lot that separated the house from Veteran’s Memorial Park which had a walking-track, parking and provided access to the Northeast Texas Trail.

The transfer of all of her files to the Paris Regional Medical Center had been seamless. Her therapy sessions were a scant 20 minutes away from where they lived.

The pansies were blooming in profusion as Gwain wheeled her to her first session. The sun made the temperature feel warmer than the 60 F.

Jana was completely prepared to hate Texas, but she had to admit that flowers in early February was something she could grow to like.

 

Next Installment

 

(C) 2025 Eaton Rapids Joe, All Rights Reserved

 

---Note to Readers---

Gwain and Jana are Professors of Language Arts at University of Asphodel, a small, Liberal Arts college in Michigan. Although past the age of retirement, they continue to pick up a few classes to help with the budget and to keep their mind's sharp.

LeFleur, Texas is a mash-up of Blossom, Texas and Detroit, Texas. Blossom is 7 miles east of I-286 which circles Paris and Detroit is 14 miles east of I-286.

Roughly 300 miles from the Gulf of America, 15 miles from the Red River and 100 miles (as the crow flies) from Dallas. 55 inches (1400mm) of precipitation in an average year and USDA Zone 8a.

I will take liberties with certain things. The Texas A&M campus which is in Commerce will be relocated to Paris.  Any resemblance of the characters to real people, living or dead, are purely coincidental.

These start-off installments are likely to be short as the background is sketched out. Trying to stretch them out to 1000 words makes them an impenetrable thicket of information.

Incidentally, I stole the title for this series from a frequent commenter whose sig line is "a little east of Paris". Thanks bro. I am making you famous.

Any intelligence on the area will be much appreciated.