Fantasy Sports

Fantasy sports in this country are very popular. I admit to being one of the afflicted. For those not familiar with this pasttime, allow me to explain how it works.

Before the season starts in the sport you choose (September for pro football, April for baseball, etc.) you either join a league, or form one yourself. There are many sites from which to pick, I prefer Yahoo.

I first joined a football league in Yahoo 9 years ago. I was asked to join in order to fill the final vacancy in a company sponsored league. Other members of the league helped me to understand how to play. A player draft occurs before the season starts in order to stock your team with players. It's important to submit a list of players you want on your team. The draft can occur in real time with each team picking a player of his choice as his turn comes up or you can just let the computer pick for you in an automated draft.

A real time draft is the most fun, since you have a time limit to make a player choice, and if you take too long, the computer picks for you. (sounds a little Big Brotherish, don't it ). Each week during the football season, the stats of the players on your team are compared to the stats on the team you are pitted against.

If your team leads the stats in more catagories than your opponent leads, you win for the week. At the end of the season a playoff occurs to decide the league champion. Usually the teams in the top half of the finishers gets to play for the championship. The second half play a consolation tourney, but they have been eliminated from the trophy run. In order to win you must keep your roster up to date, because players that can't play (due to injury, suspension, or other reasons) won't get you the stats you need to win.

Some people play for prizes, but most of the leagues I have been a part of do it for funsies only. There are rules for playing, and sometimes people try to cheat. One year I was the commissioner in a football league, and I had to discipline a couple of cheaters. Mostly the players are honest and sportsman-like, but just as in most things, there are crooks in the leagues, too.

If anybody has any questions they would like to ask about fantasy sports, let me hear from you. I am a pretty good player and have been a commissioner in a few different sports. I'd be happy to share my vast knowledge with anyone.

The Evening Wrap, 6/25

Thirteen posts.  An impressive number of posts.  Does quantity equal quality?  Was this a good day?  I don't know, somehow it doesn't seem good.  Frankly, I have a bad feeling about this.

The Failure of Al Gore: Part One

Walter Russell Mead

I didn't like him, anyway.

Hitler Rap

I haven't seen this one before. It was made way back in 83 and Mel Brooks plays Hitler.

SUPER-RULE INCLUDED, COMPLETE LIST OF PROBLEM SOLVING RULES

MY PROBLEM SOLVING RULES
by Peter Gluck (June 2011)

Here's the one problem solving rule that is most likely to be adopted.  If you see an asshole giving you a problem, just take your club and beat his brains out.  Problem solved!

Sooner, Not Later: Interstellar Voyages a Reality?

Guest commentator and co-founder of Project Icarus, Richard Obousy explores some "disruptive technologies" that might push us to the stars sooner than we think.

I agree that disruptive technologies can make the big difference in space exploration and ultimate colonization.   But this is not guaranteed, and, as a matter of fact, it may be receiving opposition from those who will have us all go back to the stone ages, because they believe that would be an improvement over modern society.

Laser Beams Close in on Fusion Energy

You could see emisison-free, safe nuclear fusion powering homes in the near future.

This is more of the same brute force technique which have so many people convinced that it is so difficult, when a table top device was invented decades ago can do the basic same thing.  It is promoted as an advance that can do all these wonderful things, but the real idea behind it has nothing to do with generating electricity.  Phooey!

Oh, behave!

Today has been a day of catching up on a few things that I haven't had time for, like my subscriptions on YouTube, my Twitter account, and maybe later, Facebook.

It so happens that my most popular videos have something to do with...

sex

gee! Who would have thunk it???

By the way, what are you people thinking about out there??? Hmm?

It reminds me of that Austin Powers line, "oh, behave!"

Some videos from my subscribed channels on YouTube

randy stout-- technogirl



tbonepearson-- Underwater Video HD


80sand70sMemories-- Star Wars - Disco Theme 1977




Best0fScience-- VST - The New VLT Survey Telescope

Katy Perry in Rolling Stone & things that go BOOM!!

This one had Katy Perry in it, so that got my attention.

Sarah Palin VS Lady Gaga - Epic Rap Battles of History 4

I blogged about both Sarah Palin and Lady Gaga. I've done videos of Palin v Obama. What am I doing wrong???????

Is the following the kind of thing I need to do???????

Brian Josephson on Cold Fusion's Reproducibility

For the record, a number of cold fusion phenomena have turned out to be fairly, though not completely reproducible. lenr.org is a good source of information in general.
Brian

Brian Josephson is the 1973 Nobel Prize winner for physics.

He is not the only eminent scientist to speak positively of "cold fusion".   It isn't the fringe, nor "pathological science" that the detractors want everyone to believe.

Einstein vs Stephen Hawking -Epic Rap Battles of History #7

Seven of these? How did I not know about this?

There seems to be a lot more of these out there. I could make a daily project out of this, ha, ha!



Update:

Following these led me back to Rhett and Link, and that reminded me that their TV show premiered yesterday. Here's a video they made that kinda segues into what I do here:



I met these guys in Amarillo back in March. They were on the way to Hollywood in order to make this new TV show.

So, how did I get connected in any way with these two guys? From this guy here, Wolfbracker, who did some superhero videos on Xtranormal.

Here is one of his videos that I compared with Rhett and Link's superhero video





I found Wolfbracker through TbonePearson



Funny thing that this hasn't helped much. Sigh.

Morning Summary, 6/25

Just passed 1400 posts yesterday. Blogger keeps suggesting that I make a book out of the blog. Somehow, that doesn't seem appealing to me. After all, it costs money. The blog was supposed to make money. It never did do that. It may never do that.

So, I have to find other reasons to continue with it. Does it do anything for me at all? I'd say yes, a little. I feel a little pride towards the creation of something that didn't exist before. There may be some pride, if I can have a little influence out in the world, even if it is tiny and hardly anyone notices. It goes beyond nothing at all. So, I've get that much from it. Maybe other folks get something from it. Not enough to make the blog go viral, though. It is definitely not doing that.

The thought of moving the subject toward health and well being- which I touched upon briefly in earlier posts- comes to mind. Everyone seems interested in that. I can get something out of it, and my readers can get something out of it, provided that it is new and interesting.

The topic of self improvement has always interested me. Particularly when something goes wrong. I want to understand why and what I can do to avoid such events in the future. It is distressing to have to keep picking up the pieces when things fall apart.   That's why I've got Dr. Sanity on the sidebar, because I've read a lot of her stuff. It really is a mad world out there.

It is better to keep one's sense of humor, especially when things look the darkest. I've gotten through some rough moments in life that way. The roughest seem to come when sense of humor is lost and things really get crazy. Dr. Sanity recommends it, and it seems to have worked for me through the years.

Evening Wrap, 6/24

The best posts today were about the Ideal Gas Law. In case you missed it, I strongly suggest that you read it. It may seem a bit presumptuous of me to say, if so, then so be it. The entire controversy seemed to revolve around this one key point that Huizenga made over and over again in his book, yet he does not take into consideration the points that are made in those two posts. It is either an oversight, or a deliberate deception. Yes, that is what I said. He may have deceived the public in order to shoot down "cold fusion". If I am right about this, this one man may be more responsible than anyone living for the fact that fusion is not providing cheap and plentiful energy for all people everywhere. What this could have meant for the human race and what has been lost during all this time is mind boggling.

Senator Johnson Speaks on Manufacturing

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) spent 31 years in manufacturing before his election to Congress last November. He’s not letting that experience go to waste.

Huizenga Post Script II

About that Ideal Gas Law...

Here's another way of looking at it. According to the Ideal Gas Law, 1 mole is always equal to 22.4 liters. Doesn't matter which gas, any gas. What is a mole? It is defined as a standard number of gas molecules. This doesn't vary with the gas. For example, 1 mole of oxygen has the same number of oxygen molecules as 1 mole of hydrogen. The same is true for carbon dioxide. It is true of all gases.

Now, the thing that does differ is the mass. Therefore, 1 mole of hydrogen gas is about 2 grams ( because hydrogen bonds with itself to form a molecule of H2 gas, therefore it has two atoms of hydrogen instead of just one). Now, compare this with a solid, like nickel, which has about 60 grams. If, by any chance, that you can saturate the nickel with hydrogen so that there is one hydrogen atom for each nickel atom, the mass only changes by the mass of 1 mole of hydrogen, or just 1 gram. ( assuming the hydrogen separates from itself back into elemental hydrogen)

Question: Is that the ratio of hydrogen atoms to nickel atoms one to one? If it is, then one observation leaps out at you. That is this: 1 mole of nickel takes up very little volume. Compared with the volume of 1 mole of hydrogen, which is 22.4 liters. You have to realize that 1 mole of nickel is much, much smaller in volume. This is where Fleishmann and Pons (F&P) came up with the idea that saturating the palladium with hydrogen actually increases its effective pressure.  That because to squeeze the hydrogen down to the same volume as the nickel would require a lot of pressure.

Hydrogen tends to seep into metal.  It is something of a problem to use hydrogen in an internal combustion engine because it will seep into the metal and make it brittle.  In order to deal with this problem, the metal has to be specially treated.

So, the chemical behavior of hydrogen to seep into metals is actually very useful to help us with fusion.  That's provided that someone is clever enough to see how that might be done.  I think F&P may have been the ones who were clever enough.

Lawyer bags 900 pound gator

A north Texas attorney tells an unforgettable story about his run-in with a monster alligator

Video of the Day Archive

Sen. Rand Paul on balancing the budget

Columbo Fantastic Interrogation Example

'Columbo' star Peter Falk dead at 83

One of his favorite lines was "just one more thing".  I liked to watch that show on TV many years ago.  Maybe I like to investigate things myself come to think of it.  I can think of a number of examples of how I do that, and all you have to do in order to verify that is to read what I am writing about with respect to "cold fusion".

Sarah LaCroix live at Winnipeg Pride Coffeehouse

She got good round of applause after the first song, I am listening to the second song as I type this. Also for the second song.

Huizenga Post Script I

This may become a series, or it may not.  I mentioned earlier today in the Morning Summary the idea I had to go back and look at Huizenga's book because I thought he may have left something out.  It so happens that I found several pages in the book that relates to the point in which I will try to make here.

One of Huizenga's criticisms of Flieischmann and Pons (F&P) "cold fusion" theories is the assertion by the two electrochemists that fusion could take place under sufficient pressure in the lattice.  The pressure claimed by F&P was 10^27 th atmospheres, which seems rather extravagant and unnecessary, if I may be so bold.

Here is what I mean: according to the Ideal Gas Law, all other things kept equal, temperature and pressure are related.  That is, if you vary pressure by the very large number mentioned above, you will have to vary temperature as well.  The equation is

PV = nRT

Where P is equal to pressure
           V is equal to volume
           n  is equal to number of particles (or moles)
          R  is a constant which never varies anyway
and    T  which is temperature

a little math will verify my point.  If pressure (P) increases, while V (volume) remains constant, while on the other side of the equation, the number of particles (n) times the constant as a quantity remains constant- in order to keep the equality, T must increase proportionately.

My understanding of fusion is that you need temperatures of about a billion degrees kelvin in order to allow fusion.  Perhaps this is incorrect, but that is my understanding.  Since 1 billion equals 10^9, it is quite a bit less than 10 ^27 atmospheres mentioned above.  Moreover, Huizenga admits to 10^4th increase in pressure, so that may bring the energy requirements down.

Huizenga never discusses energy of the system, in which the temperature is measuring.   He is leaving this out, assuming, I suppose that since it is at room temperature, energy is not being supplied to the system.  But that is a significant oversight, if true.  Since the system is an electrolysis unit, the energy being supplied is good old electricity.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, temperature and electron volts are related by an equation.  It so happens that a modest amount of electron volts can translate into very large degrees kelvin (temperature).  If only a small amount of electricity is applied, it can be equivalent to a billion degrees kelvin!  Now, if you were to look at the Ideal Gas Law equation, in order to keep the equation balanced, you would have to increase pressure dramatically.  It wouldn't bring the number up to 10^27th atmospheres, but it would be more than what Huizenga says.  In other words, fusion is not out of the question.

As with all fusion devices, control is what we are looking for.  With Polywell fusion, the mere achievement of fusion is not enough.  This has been achievable for decades.  But what has not been achieved is net energy.  If, by any chance, F&P may have come up with an ingenious method to confine the gas so that it can be fused by electrolytic means, we cannot disregard it.   In other words, Huizenga can be wrong.

Morning Summary, 6/24

Today will be busier than usual, so posting is likely to be light.

There was something that I wanted to look up in Huizenga's book, so I may be posting something about that later today, if I can find it.  It has to do with confinement of the deuterium within the lattice structure of the palladium.   It may be a key point that is getting overlooked.

Meanwhile some news came down the pike yesterday.  I'll link to it below:

From Free Energy Truth: This Is HUGE News: Defkalion Press Conference

Return of the prodigal

A few months ago, I had a little problem with some people whose name rhymes with snoogle. That caused me to stop my blog-work in midstride. Now, I'm not going to say the world stopped while I was away, but New York lost it's favorite Weiner. Sorry, I never get tired of poking fun at one of the "world's smartest people". That's a bold statement, but I heard it at Huffpo so it must be true. I have been invited to post a stray thought from time to time and if you feel compelled to disagree, do so. The times in which we live beg for participation from everyone with a voice, and so I intend to do it. So as soon as a cogent thought comes along, I'll share it here. Adios for now.

The Evening Wrap, 6/23

I feel a little drained right now.  It has been a long week, a little tiring to do everything here and be out there on the road too.  I would prefer to do all one thing or the other, but that means giving this up, which I don't want to do.

I feel as though I am doing my best work now.  By what standards this can be compared to, I don't know.  I don't see it getting much better.

After a night's sleep, things may look different in the morning.  At any rate, thanks for coming by, have a great evening.

The Oil Drum: The return of cold fusion?

Warning to cold fusion believers: this is a skeptical piece and the comments are even more so. I got this link via Talk: Energy Catalyzer link on Wikipedia.

With my prior posts, I think I've covered both sides and there's no knock out punch of an argument on either side. I tend towards believing that it is possible, but have no training to judge it confidently for myself. I get the feeling that the skeptics are leaving something out, while the believers want and need to believe in it, but may not be looking at it objectively enough.

The link above seems to connect the dots the way I did with the other hot fusion methods- in this case, Focus Fusion. None of the skeptics seem to be acknowledging the role of energy in this process. I suspect that it gets planted in the popular mind that it is hot in the way we are accustomed to thinking of hot. But electricity isn't the same form of energy as infrared radiation. That's what we feel as heat. So, a given amount electricity can be equivalent to the temperature necessary to make fusion without the device "thermalizing". So, it isn't "hot". And it isn't "cold" either. As for electricity, it is, if I am not mistaken, the kinetic energy of electrons. Kinetic energy is the movement of mass, in which electrons have a slight mass- as opposed to photons of infrared radiation, which do not. This is the distinction that appears to be getting overlooked or left out.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (poem)

Is it true?  Not likely the case anymore, if it ever was.  What seems to rule the world these days is who controls the minds of the public.  This is accomplished by the major media and public schools.  These institutions have a iron grip upon the minds of the people.  At one time, it may have been the church, but the church's influence is fading fast.

Who controls the major media?  One might be shocked to discover that our people are being manipulated from outside this country.  That's because the media is owned by corporations, and corporations are global.  The boundaries no longer exist.  Lines are blurred.  Truth is only disclosed when it is convenient to the power brokers.  And ordinary people never seem to notice nor care.

Politicians and the media are in an incestuous relationship.  Both entities conspire to strengthen the iron grip upon the public mind.  Each help the other.  As far as opposition, the Republican party is just token opposition.  To the extent that they do oppose, it only enhances the illusion that there is a choice at all.  No sooner do they get elected than they begin doing the very things that they say they won't.  Then fail to do the things they said they would do.  It becomes a game which gives the appearance of opposition, but delivers no real opposition at all.

Meanwhile, the country continues to slide toward its destruction.  And the country's enemies from within and from without cheer on the sidelines.

David Limbaugh: A constitutional convention is a dangerous idea

I respectfully disagree. It may be the only way to preserve our liberty. That's because if continue the way we are going, we will certainly lose it. It may take a number of safeguards put into place to assure against the outcome that he fears. I think it can be done if you show the will and the resolve to do it. That's what's wrong. People are just content with idle talk and doing nothing, while the country withers away.

Rhett and Link's Commercial Kings premiers tomorrow

On IFC. ( I don't watch TV, so I don't even know what that is.)

2009 article: Hydrinos and Zero Point Energy Devices Get More Real

The concept of a hydrino, a hydrogen atom with a reduced orbiting electron is something that Randell Mills at Blacklight Power has managed to engineer such that researchers and customers are beginning to quietly line up especially now that Rowan University has confirmed that the device yields energy output.

I've heard of the Casimir Effect before.  Just skimmed through this hydrino post, can't say that I get it yet.

Free Energy Truth: Defkalion, E-Catalyzer Market Strategy - Bullet Points

Defkalion Green Technologies s.a. was established for the purpose to manufacture and release to the market products based on the Andrea Rossi E-Cat invention; essentially undertaking the path from invention to industrialization on a global scale. There is no government financing involved.

The "Hyperion" name gets mentioned.  I don't know if it is connected to this:

A New Paradigm for Power Generation

 

Dr. John Hunter on Space Show 6/19

He's been on the show before.  Also, I've posted on him before, the last time on New Year's Day.  Just after the first break 30 minutes in the show, Charles called to challenge his concept.  A very lively discussion.  Dr. Space goes on a rant afterward.

It launches at 6 Km per sec. That's 13500 mph! That's what Charles objected to. Too much drag, says Charles.

Need to ruggedize the rocket motor because of the high G's. It will need a rocket motor to finish the trip to orbit.

I favor putting one of these on the moon and move payloads around the moon in a kind of trading mechanism. It would be like an Selenian economy where trading between locations take place.

Follow the facebook entry for news. I have included it in one of my likes from my Space Colonization page which can be linked here.


Note: I am going to make mp3 file downloads, I am going to mark it as red. Pdf files are marked as green. This is a heads up to anyone who doesn't want to, or does want to download it.

The Deficit, Real vs. Imagined

Economic growth, as history has shown, remains the best deficit-reduction strategy of all.

A good growth strategy would be to get energy prices down.  The way towards that would be to increase domestic supply.  Fortunately, as we have seen, there is plenty of natural gas available.  Now, if the government would just make sure that this doesn't get short circuited by radical environmentalism, there may be a chance to do just that.

Concerns about carbon dioxide? Recapture it. How? Use hydrogen fuel cells. Just extract the hydrogen from the gas and keep the carbon dioxide. What do you do with the carbon dioxide?  Make bioplastic.

Democrats accuse Republicans of 'sabotoging' the economy

Obviously, high unemployment, slow growth, housing crash, and other manifestations of a bad economy are the fault of GOP

It's "heads I win, tails you lose" type of thinking here.  No matter how you play it, it is not my fault, it is yours.

If the economy is bad in 2008, it's Bush's fault.  If it is still bad in 2012, and you can't blame Bush anymore, then just blame the Republicans, by golly.

Thomas L. Friedman- 100 Days

There is something crazy about what is going on in our country today

Friedman identified a few of the problems that I've been discussing here- what I call "politics schmolitics"- he says

Maybe it is just my friends, but I find more and more people completely disgusted by this situation and looking for a serious Third Party candidate who could run in 2012 and deliver the shock therapy to the corrupt, encrusted, two-party duopoly now running the show in America. 

The "duopoly" is geared toward dividing us and ruling over us.  They somehow get everybody divided and hating each other and then it all becomes self defeating.  Now, to overcome this, you have to recognize the problem and start looking for some common ground.

Friedman likes to write about global warming, but how about some solutions?  That doesn't mean raising prices through the roof, but the opposite.  Take natural gas, for example.  Environmentalists initially supported it as a bridge fuel until they saw that it may become more entrenched because it is cost effective.   Why is the fact that it is cost effective a problem?!  Because they don't want carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere.  Well, find a solution for that!  Don't oppose it just because it doesn't conform perfectly to your demands.

You don't need a third party.  You just need to apply intelligence to the problem and defeat the problem, not each other.

Update:

This will be a sidebar entry because it explains the blog.  For those who are new, sidebar entries are for that purpose.  Another note: I use italics for ads to Amazon, bold letters links for referring back to my own previous posts, and green letters for links to pdf files.  These are a courtesy to readers who may not want to click on these, or the opposite, if that is the case.

Morning Summary, 6/23

The usual driving schedule is heavier on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  So that explains the light posting on those days.  On the other days, there should be more posts.  The numbers appear to be holding up reasonably well for now.  Thank you for your support.

Let's start this day off with a public article from Chris Laird.

Anyone following along on the world debt crisis can see everybody is broke. And the speculators are betting on who goes down first then second and so on. That is a TON of money betting on more financial chaos destabilizing markets. The Central banks have done everything they can to combat it and they are falling behind now. Its about over, this several year hiatus from the financial crashes of 2008 and 2007.

Nice way to start the day, yes? /sarc

Here's another commentary on Kitco which compares the "Greek vis-a-vis the Euro" problem as a song "Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now"

Evening wrap, 6/22

I close out today's posts with a video I found courtesy of cold fusion now website.  It isn't going to end the skepticism in my opinion.  In order to do that, you are going to need a demo that is completely unambiguous. This means something like a Wright Brothers flight, when there can be no explanation other than what is obviously true.  If it "flies", it can't be denied.  This doesn't look like that to me, to be honest about it.  It has a number of measurements and such, but how does that convince anybody of anything in such a way that it leaves no room for doubt?

Big 1988 Movie Piano Scene

I wanted to find a different scene from this movie called "Big", in which Tom Hanks was the star. Anyway, it goes back to what I said this morning about the kumbaya stuff. In that movie, Hanks gets a punch in the nose from a guy who seemed to think everything came down to a fight. But Hanks' character was just an overgrown kid (literally), and wasn't taking things that seriously. Anyway, here's a scene from that movie that I did find.



It's all about finding the kid inside and not letting the world reduce you to a dog eat dog mindset.

Gas-to-liquids (GTL) products

Gas-to-liquids (GTL) products

Also this as a list of Gas To Liquids links:

Carbon Sciences to produce first samples of diesel fuel from methane and CO2 using catalytic dry reforming process

Yahoo Breakout: Schork: Short Natural Gas

1. Too much supply, not enough demand, sucker bet
2. buy because it is cheap, but cheap for a reason
3. why?  US producers sitting on ton of shale gas, tremendous resources available
4. Demand destroyed by recession
5. ending ethanol subsidies, infrastructure caveat
6. environmental groups wanted gas as bridge fuel, not going to replace it because so much of it
7. setting up roadblocks because of this- their alternatives can't compete
8. Nuclear? Japan equal Three Mile Island

Morning break, 6/22

If you want to be unconventional, by definition, you have to think in a new way. Which brings me to something I'd like to discuss here, but I don't know if I am going to be able to make the point I'm trying to make.

I said once before that ideology makes us stupid because it causes us to close our eyes to facts that are right in front of us, but with the ideological blinders on, we just don't see them.

So the next few sentences may seem "kumbaya" to those on the right side of the political spectrum. But here goes. Many years ago, I read Herb Cohen's book, You Can Negotiate Anything.   In that book, he describes negotiating styles.  One of those styles he called "Soviet".  By the way, I may have written about this before, but hang with me.  It was a type of style that required a winner and a loser.  A win-lose type of negotiation.   That was one style.  There was another style he called "win-win".  That's where the "kumbaya" comes in, because most people divide outcomes up into winners and losers.  The idea of a win-win style just doesn't seem realistic to them.  Conservatives love to describe liberals as kumbaya when the liberals start discussing peace.

By contrast, to a conservative, with supply side economics, if you cut taxes, everybody wins.  Why isn't that "kumbaya"?  They will see that cutting taxes, you raise more revenue.  That leaves more to the state in order to spread the wealth around.  But those on the left, in these type scenarios drop their "kumbaya" BS and start talking winners and losers again.  If you cut taxes "for the rich", somehow the interests of the poor are harmed.  Heck, they'll continue to believe that even when the outcome of their policy is negative because to them, it is more "fair".  Hey, that's what Obama said about capital gains taxes.

In the end, who's kumbaya and who isn't?  Depending on the circumstance, it would seem that either one could start taking on the role of kumbaya or the knuckle dragging neaderthal.    When it comes to relations with the outside world, the left will act like kumbaya, but when it comes to supply side economics, they'll act like the neaderthals.  And vice versa.

What makes for the stupidity is the failure is in seeing other's fallacies while not seeing their own.   They believe in their respective ideologies and can't see what's plainly in front of them.   Supply side economics seemed to work well in the Reagan era, but Clinton raised taxes and the country prospered anyway.  That wasn't supposed to happen.  In the late seventies, there was inflation and recession at the same time.  That appeared to contradict economic theory at the time.  It was called, the Phillips Curve, and it just so happened to not apply at that time.  This is where supply side economics seemed to work where Keynesianism seemed to fail.  But the opposite occurred during the Clinton years.  How can they both be right and wrong at the same time?

I would suggest that something else was at work which cannot be explained by the ideologues.  I would also suggest that ideologues may think that they know, but they don't.

Ronald Reagan didn't trust ideology.  Why should those who think well of him believe in ideology, then?  There are those who do.  By the way, the point is that in politics, ideology seems to become the conventional way of thinking.  Since we have a weak economy, those who favor Keynesian economic policies want to believe that those policy prescriptions will be successful.  Supply siders do too, with respect to their own policy prescriptions.  But what if the problem has nothing to do with the tax rates?  Then neither ideology will have the answer, will they?

In our discussions with each other, we should take the win win style.  This may seem too kumbaya, but it may actually be the only thing that can work.  Better find a way that everyone can win, but if you don't, we may all lose.

Update shortly later:

It so happens that if the politicians make a deal that is only for themselves, the outcome will be worse than doing nothing at all.  I think that is what happened with Glass Steagall.  When that was repealed, it opened the way for the housing mess that we are going through now.  They compromised the wrong thing and basically sold out the people, while only helping themselves.  If that happens now, we are really sunk.

Morning Summary, 6/22

Managed to hold the numbers, but not expand them.  I suppose that is good, but it gets harder today.  It will be busier than yesterday.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking of how to sharpen up the blog a bit more. Make the message more focused. Yesterday, I changed the header to "emphatically unconventional" which was part of that effort. I signed off last night with the question of how to apply that concept to politics and markets. But that is the rub, because neither of these permit that very much. Each are governed by rules. Once you deviate from those, you tend to get into trouble.

Here's a way to think of it: arts and sciences are laboratories where experiments can take place. But markets and politics are where you have to get real and follow the rules. Now, politics is where you can change the rules. With markets, you can change the products. Ok, let's see: experimentation from the lab is where you look for different ways of thinking and doing that can be put to real world action. I want to look for solutions for real world problems in the lab so that the needed changes can take place in the real world. Solving problems is the goal. The ultimate goal is to get to the next level. This is called "Kardashevian Aspirations".

I've decide to make this a sidebar entry. By clicking on the label, you can see all the posts that will show how the blog has evolved over time.

Evening Wrap, 6/21

Still looking for a way to streamline the blog.  It is now "emphatically unconventional", so that is now officially a part of the blog's description.  How do you find stuff that will fit in with that description, while not changing the blog too much?  For example, what is unconventional about markets?  I have to think about that.  I think I know a way with the music.  But not with politics.  The trouble with politics is that being unconventional is on the fringe.  Politics can't afford to become unconventional, or it will be pushed to the margin.  With politics, you want to make the unconventional, ahem, conventional.

Some interesting things to think about.  That's all for today.  I hope it won't be too busy tomorrow, so I can put in some posts.  Thanks for coming by and have a great evening.

The limits to unconventional

That is Lady Gaga. Unconventional doesn't mean anything when it become a way of life. Then it is just perversion. Why? It becomes the new conventional, that's why. They used to say that, you know. Back when I was a kid, they said that about the nonconformists. The nonconformists just became the new conformists.

I think I understand Lady Gaga's shtick, now.

Yahoo Breakout: Fedex

1. Transports, will they turn around after earnings
2. Fedex forecasts have been catalysts, be a seller this time, but costs have come down says Fedex
3. Internet retailers will be taxed.  Puts crimp on those sales.  Will have to address that
4. Going to tell us what happened and give guidance, fuel prices to moderate?  But some economic headwinds and internet taxes will pick up
5. Sell into strength, because of tax rhetoric
6. How to play?  Two days before earnings, bullish on lower costs, consumer spending- bullish in short term

Yahoo Breakout: Gold is Forever: Purves

1. Michael Purves guest, why gold
2. don't sell it, interesting trade, really clear buy and hold in a trader's market why?
3. dollar in debasement in the last decade, gold moves in multi decade trends
4. transitions; Greece headlines tend to favor dollar, risk dominates, gold is a form of money
5. copper is heading lower, economic growth slumping, how does copper hold up?
6. when trading copper, trading China.  Not much copper left, and China consumes both
7. leads way down and way back up when economy recovers
8. how to play copper besides futures?  Freeport Macmoran, virtual copper etf

Unconventional? You bet.

If there was an unconventional rock group around in the late sixties and early seventies, it was Grand Funk Railroad. Stands to reason it is Homer Simpson's favorite rock group.

All the critics of the day could not understand their popularity. Perhaps the reason for their success was in the quote that goes something like this:

"Just play the stuff that drives kid's parents nuts." I know that fit Grand Funk to a tee.

Hydrinos

I know that I said that I won't get into Blacklight Power too much. That's after reading a little about on Wikipedia. The discussion went into areas that I know nothing about. If I can't understand it, I won't write about it.

But this happened with the Polywell device. After listening to Dr. Bussard's Google talk on it, I could not make heads or tails of the concept. But after having it explained by Tom Lignon, Bussard's assistant, it became easier.

So, the thing that's needed is something that will make it easy. Perhaps this site may help.

In 1986 Randell Mills MD developed a theory that hydrogen atoms could shrink, and release lots of energy in the process.
He called the resultant entity a "Hydrino" (little Hydrogen), and started a company called Blacklight Power, Inc. to commercialize his process. He published his theory in a book he wrote, which is available in PDF format on his website. Unfortunately, the book contains so much mathematics that many people won't bother with it.
On this page I will try to present the energy related aspect of his theory in language that I hope will be accessible to many.

If this is to be a blog about unconventional topics, then I need to find a way to post about topics like hydrinos.

Update:

After looking around a little I came up with this discussion:

Are Hydrinos For Real?

26 May 2009 by E.M.Smith
Is This For Real?

Ok, these folks:

http://www.blacklightpower.com/

claim to be revolutionizing just about everything, but especially power production, by turning hydrogen into a form they call “hydrinos” at a lower quanum level, a fraction of the usual base state.
 

Morning Break, 6/21

Riding around in my truck this am, I was listening to Glenn Beck. It is unusual for me, since I haven't been listening to him all these years. As with TV, I stopped listening to radio years ago.

It so happens that I still need info, and radio is still good for that. And I was listening to the radio this morning and Glenn Beck starts talking about Google a bit. He mentions that Google will fill in the search box as you type along. He must have filled in part of the box when he came across something that he wanted to talk about a bit. He typed "how much does it cost" and the automatic part of google will fill in the rest. One of the items that was filled in was how much does an abortion cost. It was actually at the top of the list.

Isn't that a shame? It looks to me like people would have better things to do than this.

Another thing he was talking about was a bit of advice about investments. The investment was water. He said that to invest into water directly may get you into a lot of trouble if there is a big water shortage. Instead, his adviser suggested that you only invest in the other products connected to water, such as purifiers and such.

Maybe Glenn Beck isn't your cup of tea, but time is limited. Along those lines, and in a line of thought with this morning, I figured something about the blog. Since I am unconventional, why not just do unconventional stories? I already do this and "cold fusion" is one of them. JP Aerospace is another. Space isn't unconventional, but it may as well be since most people don't seem to be interested in it. So, there you are!

Morning Summary, 6/21

Once again, my attention is returns to streamlining the blog. It would seem after the day like yesterday, that I would really need to get fast because there is so little time. Today's plan shouldn't be so busy, so I may be able to post a bit more.

Ok, I looked up my sources of information on "cold fusion" and found a report that has been posted by Free Energy Truth. It is of Krivit's interview of Rossi as he visited their facility in Italy. It appears not to have gone well.

I looked over Krivit's report on his blog here.  Hard to say what's going on there based upon what only this. It was posted several days ago. I am a bit surprised that I had not known about it earlier.

A thought just occurred to me. Last year, just before the election, I compared Christine O'Donnell's campaign to the 70's rock group, Grand Funk Railroad. It is all about publicity and how to get it, even if it is bad publicity, because there is no such thing as bad publicity. Is this bad report a publicity stunt? Well, I don't know. Now, let's look at the entire "cold fusion" saga. If it is anything, it is a litany of controversy, which has kept it alive all these years. Could "cold fusion" be seen as the "uncola" of science? An amusing thought.

Evening Wrap, 6/20

Very busy day.  Sorry for the light posting, but I just didn't have time today.

Chris Laird was a bit late on his newsletter, here is some of what he had.  Remember that it is a subscription based service and the link is available in the products page.

Newsletter - Edition 269 - 19 June 2011
By Christopher Laird
Markets in transition
Japan effects not clear yet
HUI USD Gold

He is bearish all markets, and starting to worry about gold.  This probably won't happen.  As the Fed is empowered to stimulate the economy and avoid inflation, if there is a crash, they will continue pouring liquidity into the market.  Sure, it is inflationary, eventually, but without any demand, the velocity of money will be low, which keeps inflation risk down.  If they have the chance, they will continue with an accomodative stance.

MHD Generator Test

JP Aerospace video.

One of the comments said that this was inefficient.  It seems rather ingenious to get electrical power out of a rocket engine while getting thrust.  On the other hand, it may violate some laws of physics to suggest that this doesn't have a cost of some kind.   It could be the case that the idea is to make a battery last longer while still getting thrust.  One of the problems that he may have is that he will need to use batteries for some of this thrust since the airship isn't going to space real fast.  It will take more than a day and since some of that will be in the dark, he will have no source of power except batteries.

Abraham Lincoln: ‘The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present’ (via Sir Ken Robinson)

by Alec Patton

In his new TedTalk (already discussed by David Price), Sir Ken Robinson quotes Abraham Lincoln, from a speech he made to Congress laying the groundwork for the emancipation proclamation:

It is not “can any of us imagine better?” but, “can we all do better?” The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.    Annual Message to Congress -- Concluding Remarks

Yes, I think such a scenario may be before us yet again.



Note: This video no longer exists, so I substitute this one in its place:

This talk was about education, evidently.

I think it has a valid point, but the Lincoln's quote is why I put it up here. It seems that people get enthralled to a way of thinking and this way of thinking has to change if we are to move forward.

'Rhett and Link: Commercial Kings': IFC, YouTube Stars Talk New Local Commercial Show

The comedy troupe of Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, longtime YouTube stars, have been using their knack for getting laughs, making music and understanding what makes videos go viral to produce highly amusing -- and successful-- commercials for local businesses on YouTube

On Huffpo, no less.  A thought just came to mind.  Seinfeld was a show about nothing.  Now, with these guy's new TV show, called Commercial Kings, they will be doing a show about commercials.  You know, kind of the opposite of doing a show that is interrupted by commercials.  Commercials are the show.   It is interesting to see these guys pulling it off.  What?  Commercials!  Who would want to watch that?  But these guys are good.  If such a concept can work, these guys can pull it off.

The Morning Summary, 6/20

Nice bump in traffic. It seems as though I have to put out more content in order to keep my numbers up. That may be a challenge going forward.

Yesterday, I wrote that I wanted to streamline the blog a bit. I'm still thinking about that, but in the meantime, I'll hope that you will notice a slight change in the header. It appears better than it did before, in my own opinion. Just a slight change in the wording can make a significant difference.

I will take another look at my "about the blog" section. This may need to be revamped a little too. You know, one thing about me is that I am not necessarily well organized. But I am willing to work at improving things. The blog has reflected that as it has indeed evolved over time and is getting better. That, unfortunately, hasn't translated into a bigger audience. Nevertheless, I am pleased with the progress.

Anyway, the last thing I did last night was to listen to the June 10th edition of the Space Show. Dr. Space's guest was Pharis Williams and the topic was about space time, sort of. This has interested me because that is what you will have to master next in order to do interstellar space travel. However, this discussion went a little differently than what I expected.

I didn't have time to listen to all of it, but there was something that caught my attention, and I want to discuss it here. It was only a brief mention, but it does fit into what was discussed at length with respect to the book by Huizenga on the topic of "cold fusion". As you may recall, Huizenga believes that he was defending science by his rather strong criticism of "cold fusion". One of the criticisms was the failure to follow the usual path of "peer review". This was what caught my attention. It seems that "peer review" is not always seen as a positive thing in that it can be something of a hindrance to progress at times.

Furthermore, the idea that science is pure was somewhat debunked in that discussion. It is also about money, power, prestige, and ego. Sounds pretty familiar, does it not? Science has been raised on some sort of pedestal, and it really isn't justified.

It has also gotten mixed up with politics. Now, instead of the church being the authority on science, it is now the government. This is not conducive with continual progress and improvement, in my opinion. If there is one thing that government doesn't do well and that is improve things. This will draw a protest from those who believe in government, but I'll have to respectfully disagree. All that governments really do is act as an agent of coercion. This does not necessarily lead to progress, but, to the contrary, it may well hinder it.

Evening Wrap, 6/19

1. Total number of posts: 12 
2.  Science related             3
3. Arts related                   2  I count Rhett and Link as artistic
4. Market related              1
5. Politics                          3
6. Housekeeping               3

I don't know if this is representative of each day's blogging, but if it is, it is more political and science than arts and markets.

There are some posts that are listed above as Housekeeping. Let's take a look at those. One of them is this one. That fits. The morning summary post was a mix of science and politics (sort of) combined with stuff about me- sort of fits. There was one that more about me than anything that I usually write- fits.

I wanted to streamline this blog, but how do you do that and post stuff that interests me? It has to interest me in case I want to read it myself for any reason. You see, I want this blog to be something of a reference. If I want to find something related to an interest of mine, I can always come here and look it up. The reason for this is that if the blog is never successful in gaining an audience, it can still be useful to me. On the other hand, if I find the blog useful, somebody else might.

Well, I say science, but maybe it is more about space than science in general. I am interested in energy as a means to an end, which is raising the level of civilization. With this in mind, perhaps I should revamp the blog a little. I'll give it some thought and return to the subject at a later date.

Ares I-X launch

I didn't know about this. It may be surprising, but I have only been following the space program more closely since I restarted this blog back in mid September last year.

The ground test (before it actually launched from a pad seen in the video below) can be seen here.

Tea Party Tribune: The Queen’s Speech

The first thing I ever wrote about Sarah Palin dealt with the immediate reaction by some in the MSM to her unpolished way of speaking.

Unpolished way of speaking, eh? I don't see that. I think she speaks well enough. It only has to be well enough. There was, once upon a time, a suspicion towards anyone who was a "smooth talker". So, what happened to that?

Perhaps it is a population that has become accustomed to news readers, the talking heads that give us the news each evening. People get used to that and expect that from politicians too. But beware of the smooth talkers! That's what this article was about.

Palin is not considered a smooth talker, but so what?

Texas Governor Rick Perry Wows GOP Crowd, Sets Stage For 2012 (Video)

When finished, Rick Perry was met with chants of “Run, Rick, Run!” and “Perry 2012!”

Even though he has been governor for the past 11 years, since Bush became President, and he was Lt. Governor who then became Governor, he has remained something of an unknown to me. I watched all of this speech, as it was the first time I heard him make a political speech. He seemed like a TV preacher to me. That isn't meant to be derogatory, and I don't know why it should be, but some people may think that is what I meant.

I am currently watching another video of his address to a Tea Party rally. He is getting a lot of cheers. His diction is definitely "country", meaning that he may be caricatured as a country bumpkin, or a redneck cowboy.  How he handles that may determine his ultimate destiny as a Presidential candidate.  Yes, I agree with blog where I found this, he is going to be a candidate.

What's with these people?

Maybe I am missing something, but every time I have seen her, she has said the right kind of things. I realize the left doesn't like her, but why do those who are supposed to be conservative keep knocking this woman? Am I missing something?

Yahoo Breakout: RIM Earnings, RIM Shares Tumble, Blackberry Sales Down

1. Rim disaster, betting fortune on Rim
2. 3 warnings on company; kneecapping
3. paid 54 cents for put options, trading 35 bucks, some investors looking at short term trade for out of money options on bet that stock would go down fast
4. Rim lost 20% after earnings announcement, so they made money, how about that?
5. Seemed cheap on a P/E estimate, but keeps going down, bearish bets work
6. Once were the darling of the tech mkt, but evidently not anymore

That, my friends, is how it is done.  You pays your money and you takes your chances.  Their bet paid off because the stock reported bad earnings.  They would have lost if Rim reported a surprise to the upside.

Rhett and Link: Presidential Car Wash Commercial

Man, rap seems so easy. But I couldn't have come up with that one. Really, it takes a knack to do that stuff. Or maybe I just don't have it.

You have to have an imagination. This stuff just doesn't happen automatically. Nothing does.

Airship to Orbit Animation- JP Aerospace Youtube video

Here's the airship to orbit concept of JP Aerospace. The idea is to get as much altitude as possible out of the lifting gas, such as hydrogen. From that point on, the airship will rise based upon aerodynamic lift as it gains speed. But it will reach a limit to that and still not achieve orbit. From that point on, it must become like a rocket- with all of its thrust coming from onboard the craft.

I think this may work because he gets the most performance possible out of each component of his system. If he is right, he will be able to achieve orbit at a tiny fraction of current costs.

By the way, JP has been on the Space Show, maybe more than once. On one occasion, a caller named "Charles" really challenged him on at two points. The first was the amount of thrust needed and Charles thought that there is no way that he can achieve the needed thrust based upon solar power and batteries. The second challenge was the drag would be too great for an airship of such a large size. The airship JP envisions that will go to orbit will be over a mile long! How JP will overcome that problem is yet to be determined. He didn't say over the air.

JP Aerospace's PongSat Missions On Youtube

I got this one via the Facebook page for JP Aerospace. It was the PongSat missions back in April. I had my ad onboard one of these missions, 47,48,49- This video is better than mine.

A parody song, watcha think?

It's about being sick of YouTube. Nicely done, I must say.

Time to rethink things

There are now over 1300 posts in this blog. It is getting rather big, I'd say. Even with an organizational strategy like categories, this thing is getting big. How can it be streamlined? Especially since I don't have as much time to blog as I did before. Even if I continued blogging full time, as I did before, it would be necessary to prune the blog a bit. Let's say the daily plan is to manage the blog in such a way as to become more streamlined and efficient in terms of time.

One way to do that is to merge it into my own life. I've had those ideas all along, but how far do you take it? Do I blog every cotton picking thing about my life? I think not. Furthermore, I don't want the blog to be about me. Yet, it is inescapable that it has to be to a certain extent.

So, I guess I have to disclose what I am comfortable with disclosing. There aren't any big secrets here, just don't feel the need to discuss that much about myself.

Let's start off with something that has just crossed my mind. I cover some high tech stuff here, and people may wonder, "why aren't you doing something like that?"
Well, I tried, and it didn't work out. I got a job at IBM/NASA as a coop, which wasn't a permanent job, or to put it more bluntly, not a real job at all. But it was an opportunity, and I didn't know how to exploit it. Plain and simple fact. It wasn't because I did bad work, or got bad grades in school, or got into trouble with the law, or used drugs, or anything like that. Just plain and simple thing that may have been surmountable, but at the time, it wasn't.

Still, I could have gotten employment elsewhere. But it was the same story, really. If I knew what I was doing, in seeking a computer career, I could have been successful. I know a lot of things that I might have done better, but I decided not to do them, for one reason or another. I could go into each of these decisions, but I'd rather not. Not need for me to punish myself that way.

Other people might say, in a less than charitable spirit, that I don't really seem to have that much ability. Yet, I seem to be able to keep up with what I am doing here. I feel as though I could have done something on a professional level. It just didn't come together. Maybe that's just the way the old cookie crumbles. By the way, that isn't just fatalism that I am expressing. I am not a fatalist. If there is anything I can do to avoid a bad outcome, I will do it, if it is possible. But by the same token, I have learned to accept things as they are. You have to sometimes, or you will go nuts.

I can go on and on about this story. At times, I thought I was really close to making it big, but it didn't happen. Rather than to go into that, let's just stop there.

Another thing I did was to write software and publish it myself. I did try to get my stuff published, but it was turned down. I published it and it didn't sell.

I tried the markets and just about broke even. Another example of an opportunity that came oh, so close. I mean it was dot com time. Big fortunes could be made and lost. I think I came close to making one trade work really big. Instead, I missed it and got into a bad trade. That's the breaks.

So, you could say that I've done a number of things and made no big mark out there. I really wish I could say something different, but that is how it has been.

Morning Summary, 6/19

The numbers are shrinking badly now.  I regret that very much. But there's nothing that can be done about it, unless I want to come back here and blog full time again.  Even if I did that, there is no guarantee that the people would come back.

It may even be possible that I could come back, but for different reasons.  For the last couple of years, I have had a health problem that causes me to miss work.  It so happens that it flared up again yesterday. I've read somewhere that bloggers are a sickly bunch.  Maybe you have nothing else to do with your time, so you come here and do this.  If that happens to me, I suspect that it won't be a long career.

As I wrote yesterday, I went back and read Mallove's book.  The first time through was mostly a skim reading, not a careful reading.  Not only that, I didn't cover all the chapters.  It so happens that Huizenga's book doesn't cover some of the areas that Mallove's book covers.  Mallove gives it more of a human touch, whereas Huizenga is a bit remote.

I think it was a mistake to rely too much upon Huizenga, yet that is what the DOE report did.  The public accepted the report as the last word, but not everybody accepted it.  Work continued and it may be close to fruition, as a useful product could be in the pipeline with the Rossi Focardi device.

I set up another category to show my reactions to both books.  Anyone interested can click on "Cold Fusion Debate- Mallove v Huizenga" in order to see all of the posts in response to the books.  I'll include this post as a sidebar entry so that those of you who are interested can follow that thread more easily.  There are now over 1300 posts on this blog. It has to have some sort of organization, you know.

Before I leave, which will be necessary, because I have other things to do, I want to write something brief about a phenomenon that I have noticed before.  That phenomenon goes something like a question that was posed to me by another driver this past week.  I think the question was, because I didn't hear it all that well, which can be paraphrased thusly: "Why do you suppose that things don't get built even though the capability exists to build it, and the benefits from building it are definite and clear?"  The question was asked to me and my brother who was with me.  Since he heard the question better than I did, he answered something along the lines that it has to be an idea whose time has come.  I didn't have an answer there, but the answer has already been given in this blog.

The answer is this: the powers that be do not permit it.  An example is thorium power.  This is no exotic nor unproven method of generating energy.  It is an abundant element, takes less effort to prepare it for generating energy, leaves less radioactive waste, and would be cheaper than all forms of energy now available.  So, why wasn't it built?  Because it wasn't wanted, that's why.  Another example was the NERVA rocket, which was built in the Apollo days of the space program, was tested and found space worthy, but never got off the ground.  Why not?  Such a rocket could have taken a crew to Mars, and that is why it was built. But the powers that be didn't want it anymore.  The USA won the race to the Moon and that's is all that mattered at that time.  A third example could be "cold fusion".  Imagine what it could have meant today if this was widely available now.  It would be a different world.

An idea whose time has come?  How might that come about in these cases mentioned above?  A revolution? A suddenly enlightened leader who takes power?  I believe that none of these things happen automatically. Somebody has to make them happen.  It won't happen unless it gets strong support from someone who knows that it can work and will marshall the support needed in order to make it happen.  This requires leadership, which is currently lacking in Washington, D.C.