Evolution

One of the primary purposes of science fiction literature is to afford the opportunity to speculate about various "what if" situations, or to propose an idea in a more-or-less real world situation.  In honor of that I give you this idea, and see if it works its way into a storyline.

The other day I was in a conversation and the subject came up about gmo foods.  What he said was something of labeling foods that are of gmo origin.  And I had to ask, please define what you mean by genetically modified.  For instance, common corn that we eat today and feed to our livestock is a genetic manipulation of grasses to produce bigger seeds.  Way back in Aztek times, they discovered one day that crossing this grass stalk with this other one produced a seed that was edible and life sustaining (code words for nutritious).  Over decades and centuries man produced bigger and better corn, some as recently as just last week.

In the early periods of this experimentation there were lots of bad crops, it was inevitable to the whole trial and error discovery method.  But as time went on the corn got better.  Today it has become a mainstay food source for much of the world population.  And we have become very adept at trial and error, just as we have gotten better at most everything else of human origin.

But more recently, or maybe all through time for all things new, there are people who worry about the new variety of corn.  These naysayers say that the new stuff is bad for you.  Studies are produced that show that some people react badly to some things.  Some react so badly that they die.

But what if the question isn't how we produce 100% safe corn, but instead how the human race evolved to survive on the corn that humans invented.  That would include the concept of those humans who did not survive on the corn dying out and those genes died out with them.  Those conditions would make for a more solid and durable human race.

The problem of course are the luddites, those that are fearful of change.  Sometimes they need to be neutralized, and even laughed at if need be.  And that is where a good writer of speculative fiction might lay the drama for the story. The conflict.  If I had the imagination I would try to tackle this idea.

1600 Penn

Watching the series premiere of 1600 Penn on NBC.  It looks like a show that was conceived when the network believed that Romney would win the election.  Portray the president as a buffoon with stupid children.  If they had reworked it to be a black family, we would have "The Jeffersons".  Now that might have been funny!  "Movin' on up, Wheezy!"

How to feel good...

Here is a perspective on the fiscal cliff they plan on plunging into... The people impacted will be working people who pay taxes. The old and forty-seven living off govt won't see a thing. Working people will see a hit day one in their paychecks automatically, but the others monthly checks will remain the same, because the cuts are generic to programs and not specific. The feds will just run a bigger deficit. Sometimes I wish I could use cognitive discord to feel good about what you voted for.

Lost my handgun...

...box.  I lost the box my new handgun came in, and that bothers me because it is where the spare clip is located.  Don't worry, I know exactly where the handgun itself is and the ammo too, just can't locate the box.

So it's off to WalMart to purchase a handgun case.  Also purchase targets and more ammo so that I can visit the Eagle 1 firing range later this afternoon.  I need lots of target practice based on the results on my last visit.

FWIW: this little facebook type post is on the blog because I have way too many fb "friends" who would go ballistic based on keywords "Gun," "Target Practice" and "WalMart".  Just keeping peace in the community in more ways that one.

Leading

There is one side that refuses to allow entitlement cuts.  We have the other side that refuses to allow tax increases.  If we had a leader, he would lead to a solution.  Instead all we get is a campaign to sock it to the "rich".

The Prez is not Cool

Let's face it, the president is not cool.  C'mon, he still uses a Blackberry.  He would move to Apple, except that Steve Jobs insulted him by making Barack personally call to make the appointment and then Jobs told him to cut out the crap.  And Barry can't go to Android because they are just not cool, not at all, way too common for the enlightened.  So his personal grudge against Jobs and his vanity wins out and he still uses a Blackberry.

Orange Rhubarb Nut Bread Recipe

The rhubarb is in season and this very tart plant is wonderful mixed with sweets.  This Orange Rhubarb loaf recipe comes from Sonya Goergen thru Taste of Home magazine years ago.  Just add a dab of butter warm or cold, it's a great treat.

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups a/p flour
• 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp gr. ginger
• 1/4 tsp gr. nutmeg
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 cup chopped rhubarb
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 2 tsp orange zest

Cream the butter and sugar then add the eggs one at a time and vanilla until blended.  Separately combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ginger, nutmeg.  Combine wet and dry until mix in orange juice until mixed.  Fold in rhubarb, almonds and zest.  Pour into 9x5 or 8x8 greased pan.  Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes, ready when a toothpick comes out clean.

$30 Each

According to the data, the U.S spends $30 for every single living human being on the planet Earth. How in the hell can we be spending that much money! From wsj.com:

It is a new record. And not a pretty one.

The federal government says it spent $369.37 billion in the month of March alone, or about $1,190 per each American man, woman and child. Laid end-to-end as dollar bills, the mind-boggling sum would stretch about 1,435 times around the Earth.

More important: To fund such lavish spending, the average Americans paid only $550 in taxes. Covering just half a month's spending with tax receipts is, of course, totally unsustainable. So it is a good thing that, unlike other high-deficit countries such as Spain, foreigners still seem happy to bankroll the U.S.

Spread across the 6.7 billion non-American residents of planet Earth, Uncle Sam's monthly revenue shortfall comes to a mere $30 a person. But the numbers quickly add up. During its entire history through the year 2000, the U.S. took on gross debt of $5.6 trillion. In little over a decade since then, it is set to add nearly twice that. By the government's own estimate, this year will end with a grand total of $14.7 trillion.
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page C12

A version of this article appeared April 12, 2012, on page C12 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Overheard.

Raleigh MaidPro Service is not Trustworthy

Seems that MaidPro in Raleigh is a poorly run division. They offered a GroupOn discount for a home cleaning, but then refuse to provide the service or even to allow for scheduling. When a purchaser of their GroupOn offer contacted them, he was told to call a "special" number to schedule those, but that number does not work, and return calls to the main number go unanswered and no call back.

Seems to me that if you sell a service, you should honor that sale. If not, it should be reported to the BBB, and have blog postings so people can evaluate them. Any company that plays ethics in this manner is not someone I would invite into my home when I am not there.

I've had maid services, been ripped off too, and that was from companies where I personally knew the franchise owners and trusted them completely. If the owners of MaidPro in Raleigh run a disreputable service, and practice avoidance of customer complaints, and do not honor their commitments, there is no way in hell I would ever trust them to enter my personal space.

Fire the Policy Makers

Totaling up the market movements in my accounts this morning I discovered that I lost more money in a single day yesterday than the entire principal that I've paid on the mortgage all year long! And I pay double the mortgage minimum every month.

It is time to fire the people making economic policy decisions. Start with Bernanke. Then it should be Timmy at Treasury. Every congressman at the fed and state level that proposes more tax increases and spending boondoggles. Cap it all off with firing the president for lack of leadership.

It sucks to be anything but a ward of the state any more. Is that the plan?

EnergyWise from Progress Energy

It got hot in the house today, and it's all because the power company turned off my air conditioner. When it started going over 88 I began to wonder if it was time to give them a call.

What happened is my A/C has a box on it that allows the power company to cycle it off when needed, and apparently today was a day they needed to manage their power generation a little more closely.

It's called EnergyWise and what it does is cycle the air conditioner up and down in 15 minute increments so that the total demand for power across the grid is lowered, and they don't have to fire up additional power plants or turbines or whatever to make more electricity. I get $25 a year back by allowing them to do that and so far it's worth it.

The cycling ends by 7 pm, so I just went out to dinner with friends. When I got home everything was nice and cool just the way I'm used to.

I also have the Time-Of-Use meter. Basically it records when power is used, so daytime power costs a lot more than evening and weekends. That just means running the dryer outside of peak daytime hours. That saves me $45 or so a year, and that more than paid for the dinner tonight at a nice cool restaurant.

My friend complimented me on working towards ecologically responsible use of resources. I laughed! It was more about saving money in so many ways with only minor inconveniences that it was worth it.


FWIW: I worked for Progress Energy for a grand total of 9 days and took a serious disliking to them after that. Learned a few things since then though.

Super 8

Just watched Super 8 and it's really good. The writing is original campy, the kids are likable and the filming is tremendously period looking. Go see this in the theater if you get a chance because I don't think it will transfer well to digital.




Movie Page

Meetup.com's Attitude

Just saw that my Meetup.com subscription has renewed on the credit card, and once again I'm reviewing why I have stayed with them and why I continue to allow them to take my money.

My general opinion of Meetup.com, the company, is that they suck. They try to strike the Apple attitude of "This is what we are giving, you are commanded to like it, and if you don't like it then you are stupid". Seriously, that is what they think.

They do not care what the paying customer has to say. For instance, they took away a feature some time back. When I sent them an email asking them about it, the reply was "We have already discussed this, we are not going to put it back, ever, you will like the new stuff we have coming soon." That was the actual reply without the flowery stuff in there.

Prior to them poisoning the well with me, I had read an interview of Meetup.com CEO in the Wall Street Journal. At that time I was pretty high on them, but after hearing his re-written history of the start of the company I started to worry. It wasn't that a few things were fudged, it was that it was downright lies about how the company came to be. I disagreed with their political birth but they had moved well beyond it by that time. So for the CEO to tell outright falsehoods told me that this was a company that was not to be trusted, they would say or do whatever got them what they wanted, and that they would hide relevant information from you and lie to your face. Danger, money will be lost if you invest in them!

And finally, why the hell is it that when I log out of Meetup.com they log me out of Facebook too? Seriously, what is that all about? Sounds like shoddy programming to me, plus the fact that it's still there after more than a year shows they don't care to fix it.

Now, what can I do about reversing / challenging that credit card billing?

Ocracoke, NC

Visited Ocracoke island on the Outer Banks this past weekend. It was okay, but if I have to give it a short description it would be: Nice quiet place, but the locals do not smile much or friendly and the tourists are mostly married young couples or lesbians, each of which are in their own worlds. It's expensive beyond reasonable for a tourist town. Rating: 1 star.

However, a big bright point seems to be Manteo and area. When we drove through there a local waved and smiled at us as we passed. And kept waving and called his wife over to wave too through the rear view mirror. They want us to come visit, so I'm going back!

A Letter of Summer

Hey - I tried calling but I guess everyone is out to the cookout.

Have you enjoyed your summer so far? It's still warm enough but it got cooler for us this weekend, it's been really nice. This weekend turned into yard work. The trash barrel in the picture is nothing but crabgrass, hand picked weeds from the grass. The barrel is sitting on the crabgrass side and you can see a big difference just in the color (hue, contrast, or saturation? .... it's all green color).

The wood elf that was broken has finished drying out all summer and it was time to glue him back together. Of course I googled "best ceramic glue" and the web site said to use PVA Glue. After looking *that* up it was plain old elmers glue.

I've just put the last tomato into it's last larger pot so hopefully I'll have fresh ripe fruit again in a couple months. I grew these by seeds and they are the ooogly variety. I did some plum tomatoes and they were okay for salads and diced up but for a sandwich it's got to be bigger.

Haven't done any cooking lately although did find carrot cake, a spice cake, and jam crumble bars that use protein in place of some flour. The protein has vanilla flavor but that's okay it just means it can be desserts.

All of that was just this week, always lots of stuff going on here. Couple weeks ago was the film festival, and as always had a blast. I only saw one film begin-to-end but did see almost to 15 films total. I threw together a Friday night dinner and invited along friends and producers, maybe next year I'll get a chance to ask some actors. I think I'll do the dinner again next year and see how it goes, but this first time was a lot of fun.

Did lots of hikes again this year, though didn't get too far from the region. And went camping, once down at the lake and the whirly-gig is the path, and then up in the George Washington Crabtree Falls in Virginia. And kayaking and swimming too.

Have fun and we'll talk soon.

Michael