In the spirit of spring housecleaning (brought on by January being close to the record for mild weather?), I updated WordPress. Looks like I lost some of the customization. Will need to decide what all is worth restoring from the backup. The page does load a lot faster without the tulips photo.
Every year I try to be a good citizen and watch the State of the Union Address. This year I made it to the part about the Palestinian election results.
That shouldn’t have been a great surprise, our own democracy seems to elect corrupt politicians with alarming regularity. Democracy is a process, not an end. Guess the powers that be now will need to change the way they describe goals from “establishing democracy” to establishing the desired idealogy democratically? Maybe corrupt was too harsh a description, ethically challenged?
My fastest sleep time was a couple years ago when I snoozed off while the dignitaries were entering the room. Warning, many of the comments I make below are based on hearsay because I wasn’t awake for the whole thing.
It appears that the decline in technology in USA is a problem that needs to be addressed.
I suppose now tech companies will have to stop lecturing scientists and engineers (and engaging in similar things for the skilled trades folk who make products) about how researchers are worthless because the marketing people are who the ones who really make the corporation successful.
Will this spell the end of the practice of going from scientist to scientist to find one corrupt or inexperienced enough to support policies, like that Global Climate Change is a non-issue and Creationism/Intelligent Design is a valid scientific theory?
That more research results (even negative ones) will be published because the work will be funded publically instead of privately?
Maybe this will mean scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and teachers will be given respect and support?
As a “sputnik” scientist, a relic of the last time the government was serious about this, I suspect not. Rather, I would predict that any monies get channeled to private businesses, much like when starting with the Nixon era, there was a mandated amount of research that had to be contracted out by government labs even if in-house scientists and engineers could do the work more effectively.
It is useless to blame corporations for trying to make money — that is what they do. What is silly is doing away with long term goals and ground rules for business practices. This requires leadership. The past two weeks here in Western PA have been one grand Steelers Superbowl pep rally. But, I have not heard one fan sugggest playing football without referees would be an improvement.
The dog is still here. My dad started to refer to him as “your dog” last week and my mom is now saying that it would be good for me to have a watch dog. My dad built a dog house which we installed on Wednesday.
The name the breed[s] contest is still open, entries so far include:
- Old English sheep dog
- Poodle
- Terrier
- Bearded collie
- Polish lowland sheep dog (kind of a stretch)
Anyway, there is a goodly portion of herd dog. I need to be careful when I am out with him near the road because he loves to chase cars. Fortunately both Cribbs Road and Montgomery Lane are low traffic. When I am indoors, he just barks when one stops on the road or pulls into the driveway.
Getting acquainted with the canine perspective has been interesting. Even though the dog has marked the mailbox post at least once every day, the mail carrier totally ignores that and stops his car there and even puts things into the box! So, no surprise when my Upton Tea order came this week, he not only barked but stamped his paws on the porch. This was good for me as I was able to bring it right in and brew a pot.
I have been able to trim the matted fur from his hind legs and brush his coat. He has been really well behaved and patient so I have been making sure to keep a bone-shaped dog biscuit in my left jacket pocket to reward his good behavior.
