August 17, 2018

Reasonable doubt

Mom baked a big ole chocolate cake, and set it on the table

She comes back into the kitchen and sees her 3 yr old with chocolate icing all over his hands & face.

She asks "WHO ATE ALL THE CAKE?"

The 9, 10 & 13 yr old show up and say.."Obviously ,he did" (pointing to the 3 yr old.)

He IS the only one with true "evidence" all over him

Reasonable doubt will tell her two important things:

1. the 3 yr old cannot reach the sink to wash up alone
2. the 3 yr old probably cannot eat a whole cake by himself.

Reasonable doubt is really just intuitive thinking about what's likely and what is not..

August 17, 2018

By weight, human beings are insignificant

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/5/29/17386112/all-life-on-earth-chart-weight-plants-animals-pnas

By Brian Resnick and Javier Zarracina Updated Aug 15, 2018, 9:50am EDT

By weight, human beings are insignificant.

If everyone on the planet were to step on one side of a giant balance scale, and all the bacteria on Earth were to be placed on the other side, we’d shoot violently upward. That’s because all the bacteria on Earth combined are about 1,166 times more massive than all the humans.

Comparisons to other categories of life similarly demonstrate how very, very small we are. As a sweeping recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds, in a census sorting all the life on Earth by weight (measured in gigatons of carbon, the signature element of life on Earth), we make up less than 1 percent of life.

There are an estimated 550 gigatons of carbon of life in the world. A gigaton is equal to a billion metric tons. A metric ton is 1,000 kilograms, or about 2,200 pounds.

We’re talking in huge, huge, mind-boggling terms here.
So, using the data in PNAS, we tried to visualize the weight of all life on Earth to get a sense of the scale of it all.

snip

graphic inside article

August 11, 2018

Wanna buy a windmill?

https://www.theguardian.com/money/gallery/2018/aug/11/wonderful-windmills-in-pictures

here's a beauty..



Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire
This Grade II-listed windmill, on just under half an acre, was extended in the 1960s-70s into a home but is now in need of renovation. The four-storey property has a 22ft-lounge/dining room on the ground floor and a circular workshop which has been used as a dining/party room. The kitchen/breakfast room, family bathroom and two bedrooms, both with beamed ceilings, are on the first floor with a sitting room on the second and another bedroom with views over the grounds at the top of the tower. Detached double garage. Offers around £925,000. Savills, 01923 725 500
Photograph: Savills

August 11, 2018

R A I N !!!!!!

dateline: Centralia Washington..

A blessed & furious downpour.....

It only lasted 10 minutes, but it was still a relief

We have had no rain since June, and boy did we ever need this..

happy-dances all over western Washington today

August 11, 2018

Scientists find how blue light from digital devices speeds up blindness

https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/scientists-find-how-blue-light-from-digital-devices-speeds-up-blindness-20180810-p4zwsk.html

By Nilima Marshall
10 August 2018 — 3:26pm


London: Scientists say they have found how blue light from smartphones, laptops and other digital devices damages vision and can speed up blindness.

Research by the University of Toledo in the US has revealed that prolonged exposure to blue light triggers poisonous molecules to be generated in the eye's light-sensitive cells that can cause macular degeneration - an incurable condition that affects the middle part of vision.

Blue light, which has a shorter wavelength and more energy compared with other colours, can gradually cause damage to the eyes.

"We are being exposed to blue light continuously and the eye's cornea and lens cannot block or reflect it," Dr Ajith Karunarathne, an assistant professor in the university's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and one of the authors of the report, said.

"It's no secret that blue light harms our vision by damaging the eye's retina.

snip

August 11, 2018

Meet the researchers designing the death of plastic

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/researchers-holy-grail-of-plastic-that-self-destructs-within-minutes-20180810-p4zwpx.html

By Xiaozhi Lim
10 August 2018 — 1:06pm


Urbana, Illinois: Adam Feinberg had no sooner made a bright yellow thin sheet of plastic than he had to shred it into little pieces. He chose an "I"-shaped mould. Then, he filled it with the plastic bits and stuck it in a hot oven.

"I opened up the mold and there was this beautiful yellow 'I,'" he recalled. His new plastic passed the first test — it was moldable with heat like regular plastic. But there was another important step left in rethinking the world of durable plastics.

Feinberg placed the "I" under a white light, and five minutes later, only half of it remained. The other half had fallen on the ground. Pieced back together, the "I" had a hole in the middle and in its place was yellow goo.

The plastic did not simply melt. Its building blocks, the synthetic polymers within, had reverted to their molecular units. "It was a phenomenal feeling," he said of the successful experiment.

snip (very inspiring article)

June 29, 2018

Jarrod Ramos...shooter ( twitter feed)

https://twitter.com/erichartleyfrnd?lang=en

June 28, 2018

The fruit of the poison tree is....poisonous

Every time a justice dies/retires, we have the same trauma because:

we let GW be appointed 5/4...and he appointed Alito & Roberts

We operate at a perpetual razor's edge, so when Obama did get to appoint, he had to be super-careful so as to not offend republicans,and we got "moderates" Sotomayor & Kagan, with the recusals that followed (because Dems obey norms & rules) and we allowed Scalia's replacement to be deferred.


By now, we should just understand that we are not playing the same game as republicans. They play Russian Roulette and WE are the only ones who shoot the gun at ourselves.. They just keep loading the gun and handing it back to us.

We run the wrong candidates, we waste money going to court instead of using that money to make sure our voters comply with their bullshit voting requirements.

We perpetually believe that there are still persuade-ables. They are extinct. We have gangsters/thieves & rebels running things and they never compromise...never relent...and they do it gleefully. Dems are always cautioned "Don't gloat" when we "win one".. Republicans are always in full-gloat mode. Their flaws are not flaws.. they are features.

These things happened because we never learn from history. Republicans "win" because they DO know history (except for Trumpster) , and they are ruthless in bending it to their will.

It's debatable what the US will be after a two term FoxNews presidency, but it makes me glad that I am the age I am.. I fear for the younger ones who will have to rebuild this place if they ever get another chance.

June 26, 2018

Needed: Cooking school in DC ..for Misunderstood Republicans

They will enjoy the company, as they learn to cook for themselves.

If eating at restaurants is dicey these days, they can take turns cooking for each other.

Seems like a golden opportunity for investment with some of that slush fund money they bathe in..

Mrs Pruitt can be the manager

June 25, 2018

It's time the be the stick

Public shame in front of their children is one tactic that may actually work, long-term.

Most parents really do NOT want their children to see their faults, foibles & failings. This is the underpinning of the "family secrets" thing that many people only find out years later in life. By the time they find these things out, they have lived long enough to have some perspective.

BUT

when Mommy or Daddy is booed in public, or has mean things yelled at them or when the family is asked to leave a restaurant/movie, there is no escaping the fact that Mommy or Daddy has probably done something really bad..

Small children tend to be very curious, and may even become fearful of just who their parent is, as a person.

As long as there is no real physical danger, I see public protest of evil people as totally "fair game".

There need not be a "flower-shop/bakery/lunchroom counter" linkage, as long as the protesters make sure it's abut the specific actions the people have done..HS Barbie has power to enact cruel policies/Huckleberry Pearls willfully LIES every day,etc..

I am tired of media tut-tutting every time a republican gets his/her comeuppance, and Dems being criticized for being mean. Just because we believe in fair play and are the antithesis of republican mean-spiritedness, should not mean that we should always be on defense and never offense.

We are perpetually stuck with being the pinata.. It's time to be the stick