Tag: save trees

The Devil You Don’t Know

7/2017

Disclaimer: This is NOT a political comment but an example of poor financial planning and a lesson learned in life.

OK now. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I owned a 1972 Cheby Nova (spelling intentionally incorrect) with a V-8 engine.  My wife would run along beside it with a gas can to make sure we didn’t run out of gas between home and the store 2 blocks away.  Well maybe not really, but you get the idea.

A young (to the US) upstart Japanese car company (Subaru), Jimmy (then President), and a lot of the national media strongly urged everyone to ditch their gas guzzlers for a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle.  Kinda sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  “You will save money,” they said.

Young and stupid was I, I traded in the perfectly functional but less than efficient Nova.

The new Subaru did indeed get better fuel mileage.  When it ran.  Unfortunately, it was one of the first vehicles (at least for Subaru) to have computer control of the engine.  It didn’t work too well.  In addition, the little 4 cylinder engine didn’t have enough oomph to make the hills of Kansas without downshifting, if there was more than one adult in the vehicle.  The car was in the shop almost every week for months.  Subaru finally threw in the towel and said, “We don’t know what is wrong and you are on your own.  Sue us if you want.”  This was before the current impotent Lemon Laws,

I ended up trading the Subaru, on which I still owed a significant amount of the original financed note, for a new Jeep Wagoneer.  Loved that Wagoneer, but wish, even now, that I had the Nova and all the money wasted in finance charges, maintenance, lost equity and rental expenses for substitute vehicles.  If I had, instead of following this woe-some path, invested in say Walmart, lookout Donald.  I’d of been firing people on TV instead of him.

Me thinks what I am saying is consider carefully, the devil you know versus the devil you don’t know.

Your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave, who didn’t fall for it the second time around.

Weary.

Wind farms and rotisserie chicken

7/2017

As I sit here contemplating my glass of iced tea, I thought of something.  It came to mind that the globing-warming crowd has been predicting that the oceans are gonna rise and coastal communities are gonna go swimming.  But, something is not right in this argument.

Now, I am not a physicist, but I decided to try an experiment.  I filled my glass full of water and poured it into a graduated beaker (if you haven’t been to science class for a while, that is what scientists call a measuring cup).  The glass held 12 0z of water. Then I filled it with ice and water and measured.  It held 12 oz of ice and water.  I then let the ice water warm to room temperature, i.e. I let the ice melt.  Shazam, there was less than 12 oz of water after the ice melted.

OK, so I didn’t really do this experiment but it can be confirmed easily even if you don’t trust the internet for correct answers. See, water expands when it freezes as opposed to other substances that shrink when they freeze.

So, the global-warmed melted ice in the oceans will lower the oceans, not raise them.

But what about the land ice melt runoff?  Huh, Uncle Dave?

Just maybe, the runoff will bring the shrunken coastline back to where it was thereby preserving the exorbitantly inflated coastal property values?

But, what if the windmill huggers are right?

To prevent global warming, as the story goes, wind farms will save the planet because it will decrease the dependence on fossil fuels.  Most can see the use of wind-generated energy (actually the energy is not generated at all, it is just converted from one form to another) to reduce the dependence on fossil-fuel-generated energy, but it takes a real visionary to see the use of wind sails for personal and commercial transportation, for moving products across this great nation and for powering all those energy consuming devices still miles from any generator.  Enter the law of unintended consequences and friction.

As we increase the Earth’s resistance to rotation, that is what all those windmill blades do, the velocity (speed) of the earth’s rotation may eventually slow down.  As the rotation slows, the time allowed for the sun’s rays to contact the earth will increase, increasing the core temperature and causing the ice to thaw.  Hence, the oceans will rise.  Exactly what the wind farms were touted to prevent.

I prefer to think it in terms of the rotisserie chicken on a July 4th BBQ.  If the rotisserie turns at the proper speed, you get nice juicy run off and moist perfect chicken.  But, if it turns too slow, or not at all, you get dry burnt crap on one side and near raw chicken on the other.

Just what the global-warmers are offering us, half ass’ed chicken crap.

Just some more random thoughts from your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.

Weary.

Rain Forest Resort

7/2017

We were talking about vacations at work the other day.  I didn’t have much to offer, being the ultimate passive/aggressive recluse that I am, until someone mentioned this really cool place in the jungles of Costa Rica.

They have made an arbor-resort in the rain forest.  He described these luxurious rooms, shops and restaurants in several stories in the trees.  Up there high!  There were suspension bridges and zip lines to get from here to there.  You could spend as long as you could afford “up there” and never set foot on the ground until you left, or fell.  Those who like to commune with nature, be close to trees in order to admire their majesty and return to a more primeval style of living do so and can help save the planet in the process.

A high-quality recording of chain saws working played at night at about 3 am on a windy night where the trees are swaying. That’d perk-em up right quick.

More superfluous musings from your grumpy Uncle Dave.

Weary

The Silicon Conspiracy

6/2017

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has essentially forced the adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) on the healthcare industry, with the section known as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act).  Don’t know about you but I just love cute little acronyms.

This was done by Congress.  The same august body of our government that gave us the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which has forced the use of those expensive CFLs, halogen and LED light bulbs and the elimination of incandescent light bulbs.

I have commented on these EMRs before and could probably write a book on the subject, but hang in here, today I’ll try to keep it shorter than that.

Just like in the case of light bulbs, where Congress caused the wanton use and distribution of many toxic substances in an attempt to protect and make the world safer/brighter/lighter/more economical, it has now caused us to have to use computers and electrons to see our health history with the bizarre benefit of saving trees in the process.

But wait just a minute!  Trees can be planted, tended, harvested and planted again and therefore are a renewable resource.  Drive through Arkansas, Oregon, Maine or any timber state and look at all the tree farms.  In fact, paper can be made from a variety of cellulose producing plants, not just trees.  And paper can be made from paper.  It is recyclable!

Silicon, on the other hand, is the 14th element on the periodic table.  While silicon may be the 8th most common of the elements on earth, it is relatively rare in its elemental form and there is a finite amount of silicon in the universe.  It is commonly found in sand and dust. Silicon is used to do more than enhance breasts, butts and lips (although some of us hardly see the point), caulk leaky sinks and keep us from burning our hands on hot pots; it is an essential component in the production of computer chips.

So in fact, Congress has forced the use of an element that is not renewable to avoid the use of a resource that is renewable.

Now do you understand why we have so many military installations in the desert areas of the Western states?

Now do you understand why we are so interested in sending our young men and women to the Middle East (as if it were for oil interests, poppy-cock!)?

In the near future, you will see the news media focusing not on OPEC (Oil Producing & Exporting Countries) but SHEC. You figure the acronym.

Your grumpy Uncle Dave trying to squash conspiracy theories left and right.

Weary