DROVERIA

PN:

Joe’s Comment – The Ides of March are passed, and past, too.  Caesar, a brilliant but flawed man, stabbed to death for his politics, found no succor from his fellow Senators.  Or his best pal.
I’ll make it clear.  I haven’t been stabbed.  For my politics or anything else.  Life is good.  Ice cream is still ice cream, politics still politics.
But, when politics goes awry, lessons from history beg study.
Otherwise, won’t history repeat, or do something even worse?
There was a time the Dutch ate their Prime Minister.
Was the cause of Caesar’s demise, or that of Johan de Witt, a matter of policy?
Personality?
One (or more) of the “Carnal Sins”?
As the Dutch historians said, “het volk was redeloos, de regering radeloos, en het land reddeloos.”
Which, in English, translates as “the people were irrational, the government helpless, and the country beyond salvation.”
Thanks to Shakespeare, we know what Caesar said.
“Et tu, Brute?”
Brutus’ reply is lost in the mists of antiquity.
There are so many politicians that merit no respect, there are many more who are sanctioned criminals, and a few who deserve the gallows.
All over the world.
That is enough to put a bad taste in yer gob.
Anyone who has read my Sunday Rants knows I love a good meme.
Celebrating/mourning the Ides, anticipating the rise of Spring, I shall now declare my abhorrence of politics, and love of memes.

Canadiana

Quick Dick McDick
A bit of blue language from Saskatchewan’s ambassador to the world in this episode.
QDMcD has been missing in action for weeks.  The reason is calving.
Looks to be a surplus of snow in Tuffnel at present.
The ire of QD was raised to boiling because of CSIS leaking information about the CCP interfering in Canada, whether politics or citizenry or economics or whatever.
Just another day in the Great North:

Americana

Scott Adams Controversy
Mr. Adams made a statement during a recent podcast wherein he decried the violence perpetrated against white people by none white people.
Using his Scott Adams copyright logic, he made a statement based on reported data that identified more than 50% of American blacks had animosity toward white Americans.
Mr. Adams said if that data is so, then goodbye, I don’t want anything to do with you.
As you can imagine, the hair of every progressive spontaneously ignited!
The controversy over what he said is a firestorm.
Here’s one of his mia culpa videos:

Joe and I agree with the premise.  That is, why in the world would you have anything to do with a hate group, a group who condemns your existence?
However, in Scott Adams World, your logic can get you in deep hot water.
The memes are out there and are sublime!
Here are a few –

 

 

Joe’s Garage

Irresistible Force vs Immovable Object
The following walk through the past with Sandy Munro and his friend Michael Liedtke, reminiscing about their shared time at McDonnell Douglas, is old gold.
The time period they are discussing is the very late ’80s and early ’90s.
The subject is complex, but a distilled description of what they are talking about is ossification of a company.
When used as a verb without object, “ossify” means “to become rigid and inflexible in habits, attitudes, opinions, etc.”  When used as a verb with an object, it means “to convert into or cause to harden like a bone”.  Another word to describe the process is “fossilization”, or “fossilize” more so as the company dies.
Joe and I experienced our own version of this phenomenon working in our career with Okanagan Telephone, BC Telephone, and TELUS.
Because the “soup of the day” in those years was “Quality Circles” and the concept of lean development was young but promising,  our company struck a project to investigate improving various processes within the company, especially in engineering.  All of the teams that were formed except one did not produce earth shaking results.  Our team produced a mechanized engineering program for inside plant design and implementation.  It took 5 years of struggling and change to make a reality.  It made redundant a large number of positions (over 100) as it was rolled out, while improving and standardizing inside plant engineering output.  To Joe and my knowledge, it is still in existence today, albeit far from the original release.  What Joe and I did to make these changes wasn’t unique – we thought it an obvious and essential part of the process.  We involved the people doing the work in designing out all the bad aspects, and designing in their wish list.  We did this from outside suppliers to end users.
The resistance our team met spanned the entire company from first line workers up to the top executives.  Each of these disciplines had and always have different mandates to meet; the overall objective is efficient delivery of the desired output.
We also found acceptance and relief from many folks who were frustrated with the way things were done.  The trick is to find the people who embrace change who have better processes or products, no matter the source.
A good example of two movies that briefly touch this theme are “Ford vs Ferrari”, and “The Flight of the Phoenix”.
A wise manager once told us that, in a publicly owned company, as you advance up the management hierarchy your focus becomes less on the actual work, and more on the financial manifestation.
We have heard of many organizations whose management team was at odds with the production team, because of misdirected objectives.
The following video is a conversation about a company, McDonnell Douglas, that was no longer on the leading edge of development.  Their upper management team was focused not on meeting AND exceeding customer requirements, but on financial performance.
Changing the world is hard when the world doesn’t want to change:

Carnivore Diet
This summary of the benefits of eating a high fat low carb diet hits many high points.
The author “Stoium”, has a Ub2b channel.
Joe and I couldn’t find who is this person in a short Internet search, so Stoium he remains.
Joe and I endorse this video.  It covers the problem with eating plant foods, and processed “food”.  A good primer if you’ve not considered what your body needs.  It explains why the carnivore diet works so well in only 13 minutes.  Bargain!:

Continue reading Sunday Rant – 1223

PN:

Joe’s Comment – I’m antsy.  Waiting impatiently for Spring to magically effuse around me.  The yard is a wet clay mess.  The projects are all waiting, unmoved since the early onset Winter came on November 1st, with 8 below zero Celsius temperatures.  The slow warming of the last three weeks has diminished the snow to the point that you can walk around it if your gait is sufficiently serpentine.
The Ides of March is a few days away.
Unlike Caesar, I don’t have any murderer standing in the wings to disappear me.
Indeed, as a younger man, I would have surfed the Rubicon instead of crossing it. No warrior here.
More a puzzler, a builder, a curious George.
Life long learning is a personal mantra.
As I get older, watching children discover the world around themselves is more entertaining and fulfilling than ever before.
I’m just a 74 year old (Bday last week) kid.

 

Books
The Bible is very old.
It was influential in both the rise of The West, and the birth of the Enlightenment as well as the Reformation.
This book is the founding document of Western culture.
In the following video, Dr. Jordan Peterson takes us on a tour through “The Museum of the Bible” in Washington DC.
Joe and I found the tour guides / guests to be very entertaining, and the Gutenberg bible(s) beyond beautiful practical works of art.
We agree that the bible is the most influential book ever written, regardless of when.  A terrific video we highly recommend:

Americana

January 6^th 2021
Joe and I thought the events of the post election protests at the Capital Building were not being reported honestly, accurately, completely, or truthfully.
Anyone with half a brain (fewer than ever) would not pick such a venue for hanky-panky, according to our calculus.
Our big shnoz, a prominent landmark on our beautiful face, has been developing a keen ability to smell something rotten in Denmark, something putrescent in the body politic.
Or, as Shakespeare, that perverse white privileged 17^th century hack playwright said in his soap opera “Hamlet”, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks” (Act 3, Scene 2).
For the challenged reader, we are implying the Democrat Party did, and has for over two years, protested too much.
Way too much.
The Democrat Party is responsible for trampling the rights and freedoms of dozens of We The People by denying them access to the judicial system, denying them their rights guaranteed by The Constitution and the Amendments, locking them in jail without access to lawyers or family or communication with the world at large.
Why, pray tell?
Not for legitimate reason.
For nefarious political advantage.
Joe and I abhor the practice of politics, at any level of the culture, at any age of the willing (or unwilling) participants.
Didn’t like it in grade school.
Didn’t like it in high school.
Haven’t had but a few moments since then when the stench of political tomfoolery, of back room shenanigans, of outright lies and deceit, hasn’t hardened my resolve to distrust every stripe and pattern of “politics” and to demand pristine evidence before the words of a political mouthpiece.
Rather a lengthy introduction to the following video of Tucker Carlson.
Since the Republican Party controls the House (a slim majority of one), the footage of the January 6^th fiasco, over 40,000 HOURS of monkey see, has very little footage of monkey do.  A minuscule amount, because for the most part the mob was orderly until provoked.
For Joe and me, this sort of dishonest manipulation for political gain is treasonous.
Not to say we are stalwart Republicans.
Both parties are abhorrent.
The method of governance in most of the Western countries needs a ground up top down overhaul.
Our suspicion is the problem is a type of Gordian Knot.  It will never be perfect until humans aren’t part of it.  Alas, that would make AI the boss (or some other non human entity), and humanity will never, ever leave hold of the reins of power.  Undoubtedly out of fear of recrimination or retaliation or a little bit of the old bible saw, “do unto others” (Mathew 7:12, Luke 6:31).
Once again, Mr. Tucker Carlson proves he actually is a journalist:

The Star Spangled Banner – F1 Style
What can we say?
Computer controlled whistling 1.5L marvels:

 

COVID Echoes

Ivor Cummins
The statistician favored by Joe and me 99/100 times!
Mr. Cummins released this analysis a month ago, when the weasel Scott Adams performed his quasi-mia-culpa.
Mr. Adams was trying to square the circle by giving a back handed complement to those of us who had the common sense to avoid the vaccination by saying we “unvaxxed” doltish rubes knee jerked from distrust of government and coincidentally did the right thing by not following the government mandates.
I.e., it wasn’t a logical reaction, it was a form of distrust and antipathy.
Joe doesn’t think much of Mr. Adams.
Joe says Mr. Adams is a smarmy peckish rodent, who could use a semester or 10 in S.T.E.M. studies.
You can do a scientific study: science is experimentation, data collection, and validation.
After the data is verified, that’s a good time to drag out the old logic engine to analyze the results.
Applying maximum logic before all data is known infrequently leads to truth.
Mr. Adams reminds us of that lovely scene in “The Princess Bride” where the Dread Pirate Roberts and Vissini have a battle of wits, to the death (!), for the hand of Princess Buttercup:

Joe contends Mr. Adams is a spitting image of Vissini, argumentation wise.  Arguing vehemently and brilliantly without all the facts.
To his demise.
Logic works best when all the data are known.
Otherwise, off you might go, tiptoeing through the tulips, without a care or a clue:

 

Health and Nutrition

History of Human Nutrition
Dr. Ken Berry and Dr. Michael Eades cover 2 million years of human nutritional history in this excellent discussion.
The Proper Human Diet is a long way from modern daily bread:

Blood Pressure
The good doctor Ken Berry takes a close look at how the average GP, MD, or nurse takes your blood pressure in a clinical environment.  There are so many influences that can adversely affect your blood pressure that the chances of getting an accurate representation is low.  Also, there has been an “adjustment” to the “normal” (good average) systolic / diastolic pressures.  I.e., the old guideline is 120/80 or lower is the desired resting pressure.  Anything above is considered various shades of hypertension.  Which usually leads to medical intervention.
The trouble with this is it is theoretical, not practical.
Dr. Berry outlines how a short visit with your health care provider might give an incorrect blood pressure indication due to environment or stress or physical orientation or recent food consumption!
Also, he suggests the new guideline of 140/90 is more realistic:

 

Continue reading Sunday Rant – 1123

PN:

Joe’s Comment – Another week of winter weather.  Another week of avoiding all my projects: in the house, in the shop, on the Internet, in the yard.
Every single one.
It isn’t because I’ve no energy.  My energy level hasn’t changed.  But focusing that energy to address an urgent task or simple project confounds me.
My daily time is scattered all over the place.  Planning for projects.  Researching methodology, parts sourcing, technical reading, learning new things and ideas.
And plenty of self analysis, self reflection, with a side order of incrimination.
J’accuse!
Unlike Émile Zola, my accusations echo inward.
It is a winter phenomenon with me.
The man with dissipated focus.
I suspect it is related to daily sunshine exposure.
A few minutes a day is not possible for most of an Okanagan winter.
The lack of sunshine precipitates self reflection.
Self reflection leads to who knows where?
I found the following words from someone named Rudy Francisco a salve for my seasonal self deprecation and criticism.  It might work for laundry, too –
Way back when in the ’70s, I decided to move to the Okanagan Valley.  Part lifestyle, part demographics, mostly climate.
A song to suit my mood.
It has been a long, cold winter:

 

Canadiana

Druthers
Joe and I grow weary.
Every single cotton-pickin’ day, we see morons in our sweet beautiful town of Vernon BC wearing masks.
Alone in their car.
Walking by themselves down the street or in one of the peaceful parks.
In business settings.
In social settings.
Sometimes in small herds…..
Joe swears it is an IQ test.
The Cochrane Collaboration is a UK non-profit that has the reputation of being beyond repute, a gold standard for legitimate health care data review.
Their finding is NOT a surprise to Joe and me.
From the article:
“In an interview, Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist and lead author (Cochrane) told journalist Maryanne Demasi on Substack: “There is just no evidence that they” — masks — “make any difference,” “Full stop.”  But, wait, hold on. What about N-95 masks, as opposed to lower-quality surgical or cloth masks?
“Makes no difference — none of it,” said Jefferson.  What about the studies that initially persuaded policymakers to impose mask mandates?  “They were convinced by nonrandomized studies, flawed observational studies.”
What about the utility of masks in conjunction with other preventive measures, such as hand hygiene, physical distancing or air filtration?
“There’s no evidence that many of these things make any difference.”
From Druthers, a Canadian news source.
This segment could have been included in the COVID category, but Joe and I are trying to corral our Canadian sources.  Here’s Issue #28, March 2023, cover of the Druthers newspaper, hot off the press –
Druthers is a Canadian news source.  Their motto is “If I had my druthers, we all would know the truth“.  Free subscriptions.  Voluntary donations accepted.  All issues available on line.  The Druthers website is Druthers.net
The above article in legible form is viewable here.

Americana

Babylon Bee
A satire from the good folks at the BB.
Good grief!
Joe Biden has been an absolute disaster.
How in the world could this train wreck of a man garner any respect as the leader of the most powerful country on Earth?
Over 50 years in office.
Putting on our very best objective lens (we are a “theoretical Libertarian”), Donald Trump did more good for his country in 100 days than Joe Biden has in a lifetime.  There is also an argument that Donald Trump did more harm in 4 years than Joe Biden did in over 50 years.  Time to drag in the perspective eyeballs…..
Joe Mekanic and I are mud peckers, dirt people, salt of the earth.
We measure quality of life by other criteria than the holy dollar or by popularity.  Remember we are “theoretical Libertarians”.  Greta Garbo once said “I want to be left alone”, and as a political statement, it resonates with Joe and me.
Joe Biden is dull.  He was not qualified for the job.  He deserves all the ridicule and scorn there is as a rebuttal to his hubris, his incompetence, his impotence.
Some humor from the geniuses at The Babylon Bee:

Intellectual Froglegs
Joe Dan hasn’t released a new Froglegs for quite some time.
We speculate he had to re-calibrate his position and message.
Whatever the case, a worthy episode in the IF catalogue:

COVID Aftermath

Babylon Bee
Trolling the whole World of Lefty wackjobs since 2016.
Almost an oxymorn, BB is a Christian biased news satire generator.
Joe smiles and waves at every video and meme we view:

COVID Memes

Joe’s Garage

Acceleration
We’ve probably posted this video (or one very similar) in a past Sunday Rant.
It is so American in nature.
These crazy badgers push the envelope, then turn around and declare it a norm.
Just listening to the facts of how the vehicle makes it to the other end of the track without detonating into a zillion pieces is testimony to this apparent “grass roots” engineering.
The data is almost unbelievable:

Zip Ties n Bias Plies
Peg & Co. decide to see how high a small block Ford truck motor will rev in first gear.
Problem – there is no throttle body so the engine doesn’t run.
Solution – tow the truck behind a roll-off hauler, put the Ford in 1^st gear, let out the clutch, and hang on.
This is an example of FAFO (fuck around and find out), à la Ford.
Spoiler alert!
The clutch came apart before the engine gave up.
Joe says it was turning some  frequencies only dogs could hear until the clutch gave up.
This is test to destruction research performed to northern Alberta mud pecker standards.  Big entertainment value, small investment.
As Peg would say, minty!:

 

Continue reading Sunday Rant – 1023