PN:
Renovations Suck!
Very busy this week renovating the basement of this house I own. Me and the bank own that is. The bank isn’t renovating. I’m learning to truly hate other people’s work. I’m seeing framing and wiring and HVAC and plumbing that goes beyond head shaking. It is an exercise of changing three things to fix one, or a conundrum to decipher what in the hell the builders were trying to accomplish. I often criticize the permit and regulation bureaucracy. This house was built to “code”. What a joke! I don’t like it. For instance, who in their right mind would run plumbing waste lines right over top an electrical sub panel? Or run natural gas lines across a ceiling when they could be routed behind a wall? Or run a water main at the other end of the building from the kitchen and bathrooms? Or exhaust a built-in vacuum system inside a basement when the machine is only 2 feet from an outside wall? Or put 3 – 90 degree bends in a vacuum suction run? Good God, it’s like there was a rocket scientist requirement to make the job more difficult than it needs to be…… Renovations cost about twice new construction would be in dollars. I’m gonna be whining about this until the work is done. My last major renovation lasted 22 years (and wasn’t finished). A fine cartoon, especially humorous to those who have lived through one of my renovation attempts. –
David’s Trucking Adventures
On Saturday I got to see the remains of an excavator that caught on fire. Here’s a look at what I hauled back to Lumby for Clay H. –
The operator (Dennis) told me he was working on a side hill in rainy, muddy Quesnel, BC. While crawling over a fallen log he felt the machine starting to slip. He used the boom to try and stop the motion but the result was the undercarriage spun while the boom stayed stationary, and the machine rolled over. Dennis was banged up a bit and suffered minor burns to an arm and his side before he could get out of the machine. Lucky man! How to turn 10’s of thousands of dollars into 15 tons of scrap…..
Monday vs Sunday
Busy outside today getting ready for the inevitable – calling for 6 below Celsius temperatures overnight. Didn’t get to finish my rant until wee hours Monday. Same last week. And occasionally some weeks before. I’m seeing a pattern……….. In true Droverian form I try to fit too many things into each day. I’m a starter of projects but finisher of none. Needless, it’s still a rant no matter what day you send him (or call him).
CANADA
ISIL and Us Canucks
My sense of humor loved the tweet from Canadian Forces Lt. Gen. Yvan Blondin – another reason why I wouldn’t make a politician. May all your ordinance find its target:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/isis-mission-rcaf-commander-s-tweet-hints-at-revenge-1.2822918
If for no other reason than to protect the women and children from their own culture……..
CBC Follies
I knew nothing of the “phenomenon” of a CBC personality who’s real identity was recently (reluctantly) revealed. Can’t remember his name of the top ‘o me head. Just as well….. Joe and I figure it this way (a consensus) – the guy is a dyed-in-the-wool asshole of the first order. Big deal. The world has a surplus of genuine assholes who abuse women. Saw a picture of him; rather handsome in a Metro faggy way. Saw some video which captured a candid moment of fan depreciation. Ho-hum. Never heard of the program “Q”. Should he keep his program? Can he win a $55 million dollar lawsuit and take our tax dollars? Would you marry such an idiot? NFL (not fucking likely). AIDGAS (and I don’t give a shit).
The response of the CBC executive, however, makes my blood boil. Who in the world do they pretend to be or think they are? Whiting out and removing huge sections of text in documents which were delivered late, and after much pressure, under the “freedom of information act”. Pretending not to know what EVERYONE KNEW for years. Waffling and skating and lying. FIRE ALL THE BUMS! Better yet, un-fund the CBC and let it earn the reputation it deserves…..
As for the women…… If this guy is soooo attractive to the fairer sex and he isn’t gay, he must have had many encounters with women in his past. Only a handful complained. What to conclude? The obvious and sad conclusion is that some women accept this treatment. One can only speculate what conditions influenced these women to think this way. Other conclusions hint at something not right in our culture, in our law, in our gender identities, in our desires, in our core person. All bad stuff. Do Joe and I have a solution? Yes. Is it PC? No. Would it work? Only if people were honest, moral, and determined – in short, no. We write it off to the imperfect nature of the human animal. While searching my own thoughts on the matter, I read Kathy Shaidle’s analysis, which she aptly named “Ghomeshi-quiddick“:
http://takimag.com/article/ghomeshi_quiddick_kathy_shaidle/print#ixzz3IK4qsbYR
A quote from Ms. Shaidle’s article:
“My only gripe is that we’re already forced to cough up $1 billion a year for the dubious privilege of being scolded by the CBC for not being sufficiently compassionate or bright. Now my extorted tax dollars will be also financing both sides’ legal bills. Then the inevitable Royal Commission(s). And “on-site grief counseling.” And God knows what all.” ………………………..
We’re told that Ghomeshi-quiddick proves how daunting it is for a woman to navigate the workforce, even in 2014; that Ghomeshi’s targets stayed silent because they hesitated to trigger the wrath of a powerful man who could destroy their careers before they’d even begun.
Except that a close reading of these stories reveals that Ghomeshi didn’t always promise these women professional favors. Rather, he told many girls that they might be “the one,” that he really, truly wanted to start a family. Someday.
That’s why, his violent outbursts and weapons-grade nuttiness aside, a goodly number of them dated Ghomeshi for months, or even years.”
Joe and my sympathies are extended to the ladies involved, no matter their sincerity or motive in dating(?) this poor excuse of a male (click on the embedded link in the quote above and read what Ruth Spencer says about dating him). Strike that. Moderate excuse of a Muslim male. As for the macho-man? Not welcome on my planet.
The United States of America
The mid-term election results were generally what I had hoped would happen. Now it is on the Republicans to move the 100’s of bills the House had passed in the last 6 years through the Senate on to the President’s “to do” list for signing. These bills had been stalled on Mr. Harry Reid’s desk. Speculation is Barroom O’Shady will veto them. The Republicans will also pass a budget – something that has not happened since Obambi became POTUS in 2008. Will he dare to veto the budget? I expect the treasonous behavior of the last 6 years of Democratic governance will be revealed for all to see (thank you Ms. E. Thrasher). Keep dreaming Davidy…..
POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID
THE CULTURE (THERE IS ONLY ONE)
Surname Sources
I may have posted this before. I find it comforting. Surnames in English fall into 7 categories:
- Occupational
- Describing a personal characteristic
- An English place name
- From the name of an estate
- From a geographical feature of the landscape
- Patronymic, metronymic, ancestral
- Signifying patronage
Nice to know and be able to categorize. More info here: http://blogs.ancestry.ca/cm/there-are-7-types-of-english-surnames-which-one-is-yours/?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral&o_xid=61988&o_lid=61988&o_sch=Content+Marketing
Is this so for other languages? Even if it were, how do you get y, z, w, and k in the same name? I.e., wykonanie zabudowy is a persons name. Really? WTF can that possibly mean?
Minimum Wage
What is the right minimum wage? This shouldn’t be a surprise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j01L69eXdI
My first job outside home was the Calgary Gun Club. Ken M. told me about the job. We hustled out there and got us some employment. We were paid 50¢ an hour to load and “pull” skeet targets and trap targets for the shooters. I remember a big weekend shooting tournament – my total take for the shoot was over $15.00. Big bucks for a 14 year old in 1963…… Had there been a minimum wage, the young Droverian wouldn’t have gained valuable work experience, nor learned skills that made him more valuable as an employee, for there may not have been a job. Here is a short essay at Forbes regarding the subject: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesdorn/2013/05/07/the-minimum-wage-delusion-and-the-death-of-common-sense/
Low wage employment is “low wage” for the simple reason it is primarily unskilled or low skilled, thereby including a very large number of persons that qualify as the “labor pool”. These jobs in my youth were filled by youths. Basic workplace skills were absorbed simply by being in the position of “working”, and basic cultural and economic foundations were also absorbed – the creation of a “work ethic”, an understanding of how things work in the society at large.
A fixed minimum wage is a travesty in that it prohibits a large number of youths from participating in these foundation building exercises. Low wage jobs were never considered as “subsistence” wage employment – this is not a “career” in any sense of the term. The government needs to remove itself from business and let the marketplace balance.
Slavery
I’ve posted this video before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zM_MzkLKPY#t=101
The legacy of slavery does not lay with the white Christian western civilizations. The “holy” books of the three major monotheistic religions all treat slavery as a “norm”. The Western world, however, made slavery an illegal endeavor, punishable by law. Outside of certain BDSM activities, slavery doesn’t exist in the West. Not so the Muslim world. A book to ponder –
The information contained in the video was excerpted from this book. I’ve added it to my “must read” list.
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, SUPER STUFF
Methane Clathrates
I have postulated before that the “Bermuda Triangle” phenomena aren’t extra terrestrial or twilight zone events, but merely the ocean floor “turning over”, much as our lake beds do annually but on a grander scale. I have also suggested the theory that oil and gas supplies are non-renewable is poppycock. The process which created the vast reserves on earth didn’t stop when humans “discovered” those reserves. These forms of concentrated energy will always be produced as long as there is life on the planet. The overwhelming mass of life on earth is found in the oceans. Introducing the phenomenon of methane clathrates, or “Fire Ice“, which means methane trapped in a lattice or cage of ice. The estimated “reserves” of methane clathrates is a staggeringly large number. The following article is from the “sky is falling” we’re doomed! crowd who get wet to their knees at the prospect of “planet extinction”:
http://www.planetextinction.com/planet_extinction_clathrates.htm
Taking a more objective view of the subject, the phenomenon has been known for years, and there are procedures / technology used to mitigate the effect in pipeline transmission. :
http://ethomas.web.wesleyan.edu/ees123/clathrate.htm
This methane is a potential energy source that MAY HAVE TO BE MINED:
Some catastrophic events (for life) in the history of the planet have been surmised to be caused by methane clathrate “burping”. The stability of this clathrate requires extreme pressure and / or low temperature. A quote from the above article-
“Fossil fuel companies have not forgotten and they are extremely interested in finding an economical way to extract it from the sea floor. The reason is that the latest estimates put the amount of methane hydrate at 700,000 trillion cubic feet, or more energy than all oil and gas that has ever been discovered. It’s extremely hard to extract, and all known methods are very risky.”
The risky part implies uncontrolled release of huge volumes of methane if the process is not foolproof. The “Methane Gun” or “Clathrate Gun” hypothesis is explained here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis
Nevertheless, this vast reserve of methane exists and is released naturally. The question arises – will mankind harvest this gas in a controlled fashion before it can naturally destroy life? Or will the chicken little folks help us bury our heads in the sand, leaving an important proportion of our anatomy exposed to passers-by?
Migraines and Seizures Are Relatives
I have never had a migraine or a seizure. Nor has Joe. I know some folks, however, who do have terrible headaches. In grade 12, there was a person in physics class who had a seizure (can’t remember the name). Dan J. forwarded an article of interest re: research at Penn State U. which claims there is a commonality between the two:
http://news.psu.edu/story/332549/2014/10/30/research/link-seen-between-seizures-and-migraines-brain
Transgenics (Be Ye Not Afraid of GMO Science)
What is it that freaks people out about “genetically modified” anything? That term describes every person born! The following is a sane discussion of “transgenics” from a 2013 article in Nature:
http://www.nature.com/news/transgenics-a-new-breed-1.12887
Whether the “sky is falling” crowd like it or not, transgenics as a technology won’t be going away, no matter how many protests occur. The 12th annual transgenic technology meeting has come and gone. Here is the agenda of the event:
http://www.transtechsociety.org/tt2014/programme
They aren’t overly
THE RELIGION OF PEACE (ON US ALL)
Pat Condell puts my thoughts into words. Here he celebrates how good it is to be anti-Islam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIaGWURONRU
SUNDAY SERMON
Is teaching “Creationism” a form of child abuse? I and Joe are with Lawrence Kraus on this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmM4NubEG4g
WEATHER (OR NOT)
A week of grey gray skies, rain, clouds, and enough wind to nakedize the trees. Except for the “Mother of all oak trees” in my back yard, all the deciduous are buck naked. ‘Sposed to drop to minus six tonight. To paraphrase a terrible witticism, I heartily object – that is, when winter is unavoidable, relax and enjoy it! This year perhaps I’ll escape. Until then it’s official sweater time…
Joe (Sweaterman) Mekanic
p.s. Ramirez for all seasons –
