Ponderings of a Scientist

Don’t look at this blog in i.e. it takes everything that is wonderful in firefox and makes it look dumb!  I just now realized this because I never use i.e.!  I will try to fix the problem, but it may take awhile, I’m a bit busy at the moment (see below posts), and I have limited coding skills, in the meantime start using Mozilla Firefox and stop supporting the Microsoft Monopoly.

“The Senate began work Wednesday on an election-year bill that would open a large area of the central Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling, but would fall far short of a broader offshore energy development measure already approved by the House.” - Associated Press.  Link to full article

Don’t they get it, finding more oil is not the solution!  We are running out of oil; let’s not ruining our few remaining unpolluted (minimally polluted) natural environments searching for a few more drops.  G.W. and his cronies are rich enough, let us stop supporting them and start supporting inventors and business using creative, cost-efficient, energy-efficient, environmentally sound means to create power!

I’m reading a book entitled Edge of Battle by Dale Brown, which is a fictional novel about illegal immigration.  In the book, terriorists start using the Mexican border to cross into the U.S. and do harm. The fictional president enacts an offensive and upsets a lot of people who think he is militarizing the border and acting like a bigot, xenophobe, and racist.  I’m only on page 90 of 300 or 400, but it has already inspired me to rethinking my opinions on illegal immigration.

Last time I posted anything on the topic, my stance was rather wishy-washy, however no I’m swaying more  toward the idea that:  illegal immigrants are criminals.  I don’t really think it matters why you want to come into the country, doing so at an undesignated border crossing is still illegal and that makes you a trespasser, at the least, and a criminal, at the most.  Its not that I want to prevent Mexicans the opportunity to come to the U.S., they just need to do it legally and the U.S. administration has a duty to improve the legal immigration procedures such that legal migration is a viable option.

Also I’m so sick of the excuse that:  illegals will do jobs Americans won’t.  If you mean they will subject themselves to near slave labor and not complain because they are afraid of deportation, then yes Americans won’t do slave labor.  However, Americans would willing do the job tasks themselves, if they were treated humanely and paid a living wage to do so!  The employers of illegals need to be procesuted more so then the illegal immigrants themselves.  There would not be illegal immigration if there were no jobs.

I’m sure y’all have different opinions and I’d like to hear them!

Just getting the categories up and running. Aim to start posting here by Wednesday.

Did you know if you disagree with any of the administrations policies your are:

1. Unpatriotic,
2. Compromising National Security,
3. A Liberal!!

I bet The Dresden Dolls are all three and I recommend their newish CD, “Yes, Virginia” and if you disagree with me I’m going to tell everyone that you are unpatriotic and a threat to national security you damn mentally unstable liberal!!! (Zipy did you catch the sarcasm??)

Just a brief rant on women’s clothing sizes (for my limited
female readership and empathic male readership) while I await some paperwork
from my supervisor. I have two major
complaints:

First and foremost, why the arbitrary number system? It reminds me of the new initiative in
elementary schools to not give out grades or rankings so that no child’s
feelings are hurt. Well if my kid is bad
at math or soccer or playing with other kids I and she need to know about
it. Raising a generation that has high
self esteem but no responsibility for their actions is not getting us anywhere
(but that’s a whole other post). What I’m
trying to say to clothing manufacturers is stop sparing my self esteem with
your silly number system and while your at it start making cloths with more
lengths options! What a novel idea to
have pants fitted to your waist and length measurements, oh wait, men’s
clothing has been that way for decades!!

Second, if you insist on keeping your number system decide
on either odd numbers, even numbers or all numbers and then make the sizes standard. I should wear the same size no matter what
store I shop in or what style I try on.
However, before different manufacturers can sync their sizes the
individual companies themselves have to be consistent. I have a pair of khakis on today that I
ordered online from a company I often shop at, so logic says I would know what
size I where at the store and safely be able to purchase without trying on,
WRONG! They are too big, yet my pair of jeans
of the same size and same brand are a bit tight! Ah, annoyance……

Three comments related only in the temporal sense in that all were
brought to my attention today. From most funny to least:

So apparently if Adidas sponsors the World Cup and you and 1000 of your
closest friends decide to go the stadium in Nike’s, your shoes will be
confiscated and you will have to trudge through the beer and popcorn
soaked floor in your stockinged feet. Or at least you should
following FIFA’s logic: a large group of Dutch soccer fans
arrived at the World Cup match between the Netherlands and the Ivory
Coast in orange lederhosen which they had purchased in a Dutch grocery
market. Problem was the lederhosen were created by Bavaria, a
Dutch beer brewery, and since Bavaria is not a sponsor of the Dutch
World Cup team or the World Cup Tournee itself (Budweiser is the brew
of choice - arghh how did cheap American beer get the sponsorship for
the largest tournament of a sport Americans don’t even call by its
appropriate name!) all of the fans were told to ditch the pants or
leave. So 1000 Dutch fans watched the game in their undies and
then walked back to their hotels in their undies as the lederhosen were
confiscated not just held for the game by the FIFA officials. On
a similar note I had a bag confiscated by the Fleet Center (Now the
Garden - again-) because the country went from yellow terror alert to orange
while I was on the way to the hockey game and apparently bags are
allowed during federal yellow terror alerts, but disallowed during any
higher level of alert. FIFA and the Fleet Center stole our stuff,
and I think I can speak for the Dutch when I say I want my orange
lederhosen back, er I mean my bag!!

So I’ve been thinking lately and I’ve come up with this. I hate
empty talk. I find it terribly annoying when people claim to have
one value (ethic/moral) system, but then don’t act on it. I mean
please, enough with the righteous indignation! Part of this
realization has been a personal evaluation and while I think I’m better
than average when it comes to practicing what I preach, I’m going to
work on it. I think my worst offense is complaining about
politics and not doing anything to change the social landscape around
me (besides voting - and I should really do that more, engage in local
politics, not just state and federal elections). I guess this is
because I don’t know where to start or what I can do. Any
thoughts?

I think society’s worst offense is complaining about gasoline prices,
yet not doing anything about our oil dependency. Really if your
driving an SUV 20 miles to work each day you have no right to whine
about gas prices. In fact you should be paying me for driving a
hybrid and walking as much as possible (besides the commute) While I
would love for everyone to value the
environment and be concerned about global warming and urban sprawl and
super powerful multinational oil firms and reduce their oil use for
those reasons, I understand this is a pipe dream. So stop driving
gas guzzlers because your selfish and don’t want to pay the fuel costs
or want to buy into the hybrid trend; I don’t care what your moral
grounds, as long as you stop driving the trucks, caravans, SUVs,
oversized sedans and overpowered sports cars

I have an idea for a campaign. I’m going to write
bumpsticker-esque comments and stick them in the window of my car while
I make my stupid commute each day (that reminds me for those of you
that care, looks like I got the new job, I going to revisit the place
next week and get the low-down on salary, benefits, hours etc. before
making a decision, but I’m their #1 choice.)

Some Ideas:

For Yuppy Mommies: If you really cared about your kids’ future you wouldn’t be driving that beast
For Ford F-150 Drivers: I don’t see anything in your bed, do you
really use that truck to haul things? You know you can rent a
truck from U-haul for less then you pay in gas for those times you really need it.
For the people that need the “family car”: Stop buying your kids
so much shit and stop forcing them into so many activities and you
won’t need all that space in your car
For the Motorcyclists: Good fuel economy, now put on a helmet and a muffler and your good to go!

Any other ideas?

First off why the hell does committee have some many double letters. I think it is a codex meaning that committees can only be successful when they consist of 1) two people or 2) 3 pairs of twins, however for more clarity I will have to defer to Tom Hanks. ASIDE: Why does commute lack the tt and ee? I hope this isn’t a code meaning only one out of every three cars in the morning commute should be a carpool.

Why the committee talk? I spent Tuesday and Wednesday of this week as an audience member at a committee meeting for which my boss is a member. Now the whole premise behind this committee is to bring together 3 distinct user groups and have them examine the work of colleagues from any or all of these user groups, come to a consensus on the colleagues’ work, and pass the decision on to the larger council. I conferred with Tom Hanks and what this really means is talk a lot and get little accomplished! It got so bad on the first day I actually started blogging in the meeting (on paper, commingled with my notes; I thought typing would be rude), assigning each member a stereotypical title, i.e. The Egotist, The Pessimist, The Placater. However after spending a second day with these people, including a beer at the end of day two, I feel much less like ranting. While I still feel a committee of ten works about as fast as a snail going the wrong way on an escalator, they did make significant progress and gave their colleagues a much fairer (albeit slower) review than if the decision was made by one person alone.

So on the second day the focus of the meeting shifted less to reviewing and more to hearing progress reports from various people. I got to make what turned out to be an hour long presentation. I would talk about something for 5 minutes and then there would be 15 minutes of discussion. That was great as they loved my ideas and came up with all sorts of new projects for me to work on. Tom Hanks says these are great reasons why my boss should try to make my position permanent not a one year term contract. One the other hand, all the discussion sucked because I was standing in the middle of the U shaped committee seating the whole time. It was a bit awkward being the only one standing, at one point I went back to my seat, but for the most part the discussion was just long enough for the awkwardness, but not long enough for me to sit down!

I’m sure the Old Weirdo has something to say about meetings as anyone in his home town can watch him try to stay awake each week on the public assess channel!

Final Words of Wisdom: Democracy is great, but as seen by the lead by committee example, decisions via majority rule are slow. If only I trusted someone to be the monarchy or dictator, she could get so much accomplished. POLITICAL OPINION: Our current federal government is a combination reflecting the worst of both of these systems.

“A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.”
- John le Carre

Americans work too much! Why, probably because we want too many things. Americans also drink too much coffee.

I would expand on these thoughts to create something of substance, but it’s Friday afternoon and I get to leave work early. So rather then continue to type I think I will go home! I promise more words of wisdom and ignorant opinionations will be posted this weekend.