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 6th 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 17th 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 6th 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:
POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID
SUNDAY SERMON
Once again, the Sunday pulpit is occupied by Dr. Jordan Peterson.
In this conversation / interview with Steven J. Shaw, the topic is reproduction of the human species. Mr. Shaw has been studying declining birthrates around the world. He has released a documentary titled “Birthgap – Childless World”. You can watch part 1 on Ub2b here.
The ageless and eternal words in Ecclesiastes 1:9 ring true, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
That is, in the words of Joe Mekanic, if it isn’t one thing, it is another. There is no rest on an ever changing world in an ever expanding universe.
The greatest advancement in human philosophy in the last 500 years has been the Enlightenment and the Reformation. It is the wellspring of modern thought, of scientific endeavor, of freedom and liberty in the West.
Now we find that there won’t be enough people to sustain the incredible culture that has been developed worldwide.
If it rains, it pours. Perhaps artificial intelligence will resolve the issue, but Joe and I aren’t holding our breath:
WEATHER (OR NOT)
This week in Vernon BC has been frustrating weather all around.
Not terribly cold at night (single digits below Celsius) and in the daytime single digits above Celsius.
A few false starts of snow – only for a short time, very light, sublimating as it fell.
A few frosty windshield mornings.
A few sunny periods that made Joe and I smile in relief.
Talk about having ants in our pants.
We are so anxious to get outside in the sunlight everyday that we are vibrating.
The back forty doesn’t freeze hard enough overnight to allow travel over the surface. The property is all clay, estimated at 20 to 30 feet in depth.
Heavy rain or snow melt without wind leaves the ground almost impassible.
In rubber boots the clay sticks and forms great snow-shoe clods as you walk.
Any vehicle with rubber tires clogs the tire treads with one revolution, making traction challenging.
So, we wait.
Wait for sunny and warm days to dry the surface.
The birds in our neighborhood raise a racket every morning that lasts all day long.
Spring is 9 days away.
So near, yet so far……
Joe (impatient) Mekanic
p.s. Ramirez is the cherry on top –
