Open Your Eyes Lady Justice

Barak Obama recently provided insight into the criteria he plans to use to select judges for the US Supreme Court. Here is part of what he said...

"We need somebody who's got the heart to recognize -- the empathy to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."

The essential problem with what Obama is saying here, is that he never mentioned the words "Law" or "Constitution". I have been asked to serve on juries before and each time the judge wanted to make sure that I would base my decision on the "Law" and "Truth". I don't remember him asking me anything about "empathy". I suspect if I had told him I would base my decisions on "empathy" I would have disqualified myself from consideration on that jury.

I thought Lady Justice was supposed to be blind. According to Obama, she must remove her blindfold before making a decision. So much for the rule of law.

The Company Refrigerator

I work for an aerospace company of about 70 employees. We have a nice breakroom with tables and chairs, coffee and vending machines, a microwave oven, sinks, a dishwasher...and YES we also have a Company Refrigerator. The company provides the refrigerator so that employees can bring their lunches to work and keep them cold during the day until lunchtime. I often bring a plate from home with leftovers from our previous night's dinner. Some people bring sack lunches and some people bring Tupperware containers with leftovers or a salad and dressing. The top of the fridge has a large freezer with an ice machine and space for frozen items.

As with any situation, there are always those who lack simple common sense, and who fail to understand basic ideas. They often cause problems. Let me explain.

We all know that food is cheaper when you buy it in bulk. For example, a frozen dinner costs less if you buy it in quantities of 50 or 100 than it is to buy one at a time. The same goes for peanut buttter. You get more peanut butter for your money if you buy the five gallon size container than if you buy it in a 16 oz. size. This idea of bulk buying is one that engineers easily understand because it involves mathematics including fractions and ratios. Therefore it is common to see an engineer buying things in bulk, whether it is food or quarts of car oil or postage stamps. This idea of buying things in bulk meshes nicely with another characteristic of engineers.

Most engineers tend to be a bit lazy. For example if engineers had their way, they would never make their beds in the morning. After all, you're just going to sleep in it the next night so why bother making it? And if they DO make their beds, they often just sleep on the floor or on the couch for the same reason. This is especially true of engineers that are not married, but that is another story.

If you combine this laziness with the desire to buy in bulk you have big problems with company refrigerators. Let me explain what I mean.
Our company is located across the street from a Costco. Costco is the perfect place to buy in bulk. It seems that everything at Costco comes in packages of two or more. In addition, all the containers are huge. If you go to Costco to buy a bottle of Asprin, you have to buy two 1000 tablet bottles in a single package. Milk is sold in gallon containers that are joined together in pairs with a nice plastic handle that makes it easy to carry two containers with one hand. Apples come in containers of 20 and bannas are sold in 10 pound boxes. When one of our engineers goes to Costco to buy lunch, he nearly fills the company refrigerator with his purchases when he returns. He is often too lazy to take his stuff home, since he will end up using it for lunches anyway, so why not leave it in the company fridge.

Our company refrigerator is full of bulk bottles of catsup, mustard, salad dressing, peanut butter, jam and numerous entire loaves of bread. In addition there are gallon jugs of milk and juice, 2 liter bottles of soda, and 5 pound packages of cold cuts. The freezer is full of stacks of frozen dinners, gallon containers of ice-cream and large bags of frozen vegetables. To keep their supply of food from getting mixed up with another engineer's stuff, they will often commandeer a drawer or a shelf and fill it with their personal items.

Sometimes employees will eat out at lunch. It is quite common for the women employees to return from lunch with doggie bags filled with left-overs. Of course they plan to eat it in the near future, but they soon forget about it and there it stays taking up even more of the limited space.

Now if all of this wasn't bad enough, there is the constant problem of spoilage. Left-overs don't usually last more than a few weeks before they start to decompose. The odor of rotting food can be quite strong until it becomes intollerable, and begins to taint the other food items inside the fridge. When that happens, one or two employees join together to clean the company refrigerator. No matter how much advance warning they provide the other employees, the cleaning day arrives and the fridge is usually full to its maximum capacity. It takes a lot of courage to toss out expensive Tupperware, family dinnerware, and perfectly good food items. There is usually some scraping to do where something has leaked out and dripped down the inside of the refrigerator. Hot water, soap and disinfectant along with plenty of elbow grease, and the company refrigerator is soon empty and clean. The odors are gone and you feel confident that it is now safe to store food inside without fear of food poisoning or contamination.

But it is a losing battle... for on the morrow the engineers return to work with their bags and plates and boxes and bottles and jars and ........

The Rattlesnake That Came To Camp

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Father and Son's campout at the old Hope Town in Simi Valley, CA. It was the sight of many old western movies from years past. We had a great time, with great food and stories around the campfire. The next morning, one of the boys saw a rattlesnake cross the road near his camp-site. We followed it into a bush and took some great video of it coiled up ready to strike.

A Grandfather's Love

Two Of My Engineering Heros

At 10:35 am on December 17, 1903, a man named John Daniels from the Lifesaving Station at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, took one of the most famous photographs in the history of the world. Orville Wright was at the controls of the first powered airplane while his older brother Wilbur ran along side. Wilbur had just let go of the wing when John squeezed the bulb and took the picture. The first flight was 120 feet in 12 seconds. These men are two of my engineering heros.

The Miracle of Birth

How can you look at the tiny hand of an infant baby and not feel God's love for us? We have two twin grand-daughters that were born very premature. This is one of them holding her daddy's finger. They are nearly 3 years old now and doing fine. They are our miracle babies.

Big Government Will Always Be Late

My wife and I arrived at the train station a bit early so that we wouldn't be rushed. We had spent a wonderful weekend in San Luis Obispo but were anxious to enjoy the senic train ride home down the coast of California. After unloading our luggage from the shuttle and carrying it inside the depot, I immediately noticed a lack of other passengers.

"Where is everyone?" I asked myself.

When I looked out the door to the train tracks and did not see the train, I knew something was wrong. Going against my male instinct never to ask for help, I approached the desk.

"Where is the train?" I inquired of the man behind the counter. He was wearing a wonderful uniform with a large belt full of different colored tickets and an official Railroad Punch. I could tell he was really busy, because it took him about a minute before he stopped reading the newspaper and looked up at me.

"What's your question?" he asked, keeping his finger on the part of the news story where he had stopped to answer my question..

Now you must understand that I am no stranger to working with government employees. I have worked in the aerospace industry for years and I could tell you dozens of stories about the gross inefficiency of big government. Afterall who else but big government could produce a $1000 toilet seat?

And don't forget the Department of Motor Vehicles. Ever since I learned to drive I hated to go to the DMV. You have to wait in one long line after another just to submit the form to take the written test, then another line to get the test graded, and another line to have your picture taken, and another line to pay your fees, and another line to take the driving test, only to have to wait 90 days to get the actual license in the mail.

Or what about the Federal Passport process? I remember standing at the counter in the Federal Building in Santa Monica, CA, while the government employee spent 5 minutes filling his stapler with fresh staples and mending the hanger for his calendar so that he could mark off the days until he got his next fat paycheck. I didn't dare say anything for fear that my urgent passport application might mysteriously finds its way into the trash bin at his feet.

No, this was not my first encounter with a finely tuned organization, owned and operated by big government.

"Where is the train?" I repeated to the man behind the train counter.

As I expected, he was slow to respond, but finally he said, "It's about six hours late. It should be here about 6 o'clock this evening." He continued, "You see this train originated in Seattle, Washington, and a lot can go wrong between here and Seattle."

"There goes our senic ride up the coast," I mumbled to my wife when I returned to the hard wooden bench where she was sitting. "It will be nearly dark by then," I explained to her.

My wife and I kept busy during the long wait, taking pictures, reading magazines and visiting with fellow passengers. Many had arrived to find out that the train was even later than they had been told. I met a wonderful family from North Platte, Nebraska, who were enjoying a month long family vacation traveling by train across the country. The father explained how relaxing it was to sit back and look out the windows without a care in the world.

"There is only one problem, that you MUST overcome," he warned me. "You must forget about following any kind of schedule or time table. The trains are NEVER on time."

"You don't need to tell me about that," I responded. "We've been sitting here for over five hours waiting for our train."

When I looked at my inexpensive Timex watch, it was nearly 6 o'clock. A quick glance out the window to the empty railroad track prepared me what I knew was inevitable. There must be another delay. I approached the counter to find out.

"It's a long way from Seattle," he told me again. "They had some problems at the last station and were delayed on a siding up the track. They should be here shortly."

About an hour later, we heard a garbled announcement over the ancient public address system. The train was approaching. We drug our luggage out to the platform and I pulled out my camera to record the arrival.

As we loaded our luggage onto the train. I thought to myself....

How will it be when the US health care system is run with the same efficiency and competence as Amtrak? I have been to the UK and I know first hand that going to a doctor in England is no different that visiting a veterinarian in the US, except that they mop the floors more often in the US.

And what will it be like to have the US government produce our automobiles at the new Government Motors? It could very well turn into the situation like they had in Germany before WWII when Hitler ordered the design and manufacture of the Volkswagen ("The People's Car"). If it hadn't been for funding from the Third Reich and mandatory payroll deductions, nobody would ever have owned one.

One thing I know for sure, whatever happens in the US with healthcare, banking, and the automobile industry, our experience with Amtrak is typical of what we can expect.

Pay your taxes and enjoy the ride....Too bad it is six hours late!

The Knack (Dilbert's mother learns Dilbert will be an Engineer)

This is a great video about young engineers and illustrates the anguish and sorrow that some parents feel when they learn that their child may become an "engineer".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmYDgncMhXw

The Little Red Fire Engine

This is the Little Red Fire Engine that I made for our children many years ago. All the neighborhood kids came over to help paint it red. They were all covered with red paint, but they had a great time. This is its third engine, and it runs pretty good, as you can see from this first video of our two youngest adult children riding on it at our recent family reunion. If you look carefully you may see that it has dual tires in the rear.

Steering Skateboard

This is a fun invention of mine. The kids call it the Steering Skateboard. It is 3 feet wide by 5 feet long and rides on 18 skateboard wheels. It is powered by a 40 horsepower snow-mobile engine which turns a 4 bladed propeller. We have only had it up to 30 mph in our neighborhood, but based upon its maximum static thrust, it is capable of speeds of at least 55 mph. You can hear it in the video but it is really loud!

Gopher Scope

Here is a photo of one of my most recent engineering inventions. It is called the Gopher Scope. At the end of the 30 foot long vacuum cleaner hose is a small camera and two headlights. The video seen by the camera is displayed on the 7 inch monitor. The user inserts the camera end of the scope into the gopher hole and pushes it along the various passage ways looking for the gopher. Several methods have been suggested for disposing of the gopher after he is found, but thus far most of them have seemed too gruesome for a mixed audience.

I got into a discussion the other day with a doctor who performs Colonoscopies using a Colonoscope. I told him I had made my own scope that I used to catch gophers. He was not really interested, even though I told him that mine had two headlights and his only had one. However, one aspect of the scope really caught his attention. I told him that while I was inside the gopher tunnels I would often become disoriented because the tunnels were round and I couldn't tell which way was up or down. His eyes lit up! "I have the same problem inside the intestine!" he exclaimed. Sometimes we can see a puddle of standing water inside the intestine and we can use that to orient ourselves. After that we had a great visit.

Cheney Shows the Way

I loved this article by Patrick J. Buchanan entitled "Cheney Shows the Way
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32004

The Engineering Gene

Deep within our genetic make-up is a wonderful combination of genes and chromosomes. These chromosomes form the talents and strengths which determine who we are. For some there is an ear for music. Others have the ability to speak and think at the same time (I really missed that one). For some it is art and drawing and seeing a sculpture out of a block of clay or a clean sheet of paper. There are an enumerable array of talents, and no two people are the same.I was born with the engineering gene. The engineering gene and the spelling gene cannot exist in the same person; therefore I cannot spell. Thank goodness for spell check and the old fashioned dictionary. The engineering gene allows me to put objects together in my mind as well as take them apart. I communicate with pictures and graphs and mathematics. Oh how I love math.When I talk to kids today about being an engineer I asked them if they love math. Teachers give you math homework assignments to do problems 1 thru 21 odd. (They always do that, you know, because the answers for the odd problems are in the back of the book.) I tell the kids that if you really love math, you will do the even problems as well just for the fun of it. Most kids think I am crazy, but some know what I mean. They are candidates for engineering.When I was a kid I loved to take things apart and see how they worked or why they no longer worked. I loved to make things and build things. I am always amazed with our world and the wonders around me. I love to ask questions.For example I ask the kids, "Which way do you run around the track on the field?""Counter-clockwise," they respond."Correct.""Which way to cars drive around the Indy 500 raceway?""Counter-clockwise," they respond again, this time with wonder in their eyes."Which way to horses run around the race track?""Counter-clockwise," they say in unison."Did you ever wonder why?" I ask them."Why," they ask me. I love to hear that question...and I love to answer it...Why?Because I am an engineer.

A Hundred Ground Squirrels!

Over the past three years I have been catching ground squirrels in my back yard. I use one of those "Have A Heart" traps that catches them alive. I place the trap on the top of my block wall fence and as a squirrel walks along the top of the fence it walks into the trap and the doors close, catching it inside. I average about one squirrel every 9 days. Over the past three years, I have caught 128 of the little guys. I caught one today, in fact. He was very angry, and chirped loudly at me.

When we first moved into our house, we had so many squirrels running through our yard that we had to do something quickly. The worst problem was their fleas. We couldn't walk in the yard without getting fleas on our legs. We worried about disease, especially with our four little children.

So I decided on the trap method to get rid of them, and it has worked like a charm. When I catch a squirrel in the trap, I load the trap in the back of my truck and drive the squirrel to his new home. His new residence is in a nearby field full of grass, bushes, a few trees, and lots of new friends.

Today I read a news article about a woman in Hazlet, New Jersey, who has been charged with animal cruelty after a squirrel that she caught died in a similar trap. According to the AP news article, she faces four counts of animal cruelty, including one that cites her for "not providing the squirrel with adequate food, water and shelter."

When I read that article it gave me cause for concern. I have never fed any of the squirrels that I have caught. Maybe I need to put a small dish of water inside the trap along with a bowl of food. Maybe I need to include a soft bed of straw in case the little guy wants to take a nap before I let him go. And what about exercise? Maybe I should include one of those wheels that they put in hamster cages.

I am going to need a bigger trap!

Bug v.s. Baby

The other day a colleague and I were walking through the parking lot on our way to work. Suddenly I heard her scream, "Oh No!"

I thought something was terribly wrong.

She pointed to the my foot and exclaimed, "You just stepped on a bug!"

At first I figured she was grossed out by the thought of a smashed bug on the bottom of my shoe. But then she reprimended me, "You need to be more careful and watch where you are stepping!"

I was astounded to see that she was so sensative to the life of this tiny creature.

Some weeks later, this same colleague and I were having a political discussion about two candidates who were running for president of the United States.

"I could never vote for him," she said, referring to one of the two men.

"Why not?" I asked.

Her response surprised me. "He doesn't believe in abortion."

I let her comment sink in for a few seconds, before I responded, "Why is it that you have a problem with me stepping on a bug in the parking lot, but you have no problem killing an unborn baby?"

She mumbled some jibberish about incest and rape trying to justify her support for abortion.

I reminded her that most abortions are performed simply as a method of birth control.

We haven't spoken about the subject of abortion since. I am more careful walking through parking lots, but I don't believe she has changed her position on abortion.

Victims of the Greatest Fraud!

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh today and he is trying to find a Theme Song for his Anti-Global Warming Update. The one he likes the best is "Fire" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown which begins with "I AM THE G-D OF H-LL FIRE!!!!!!!".

I gave a controversial speech the other day at Toastmasters. My specific assignment was to speak on a controversial subject and then respond to hostile questions after the speech. I decided to speak on one of my favorite subjects "Global Warming".

I began like this, "Everyone in this room is a VICTIM! A victim of the greatest FRAUD that the world has ever seen!....."

I told the audience how the motivation for the fraud was money! "Follow the money," I told the audience. I exposed three of the worst proponents of the Global Warming Scare including Al Gore (who is so ignorant he can't explain why ice-cubes float in water), the President of a web site (CarbonFund.Org) that sells "CO2 Indulgences" similar to the Catholic Church hundreds of years ago, and the head of climate research at NASA's Goddard Institute. For $100 you can rid yourself of guilt from producing CO2 and claim that you are "Carbon Neutral". They will even send you a beautiful certificate (suitable for framing) to show your friends that you are "Carbon Neutral".

After all, that is what Al Gore does. He pays money to the web site to offset the CO2 that he produces with his SUVs and his Airplanes and his big mouth. Then he can show his certificate and say that he is "Carbon Neutral."

Anyway, I was just starting the question and answer period of my speech when a guy in the audience came out of his seat and stormed the podium where I was standing. Some people actually thought he was going to hit me, but he only wanted to yell at me at close range. It was pretty intense. The club president gave him a scolding for his "bad behaviour" and he has since dropped out of the club.

I read an article in Scientific American about two European Scientists who just discovered that living plants produce one of the worst greenhouse gasses, namely Methane. At first they were afraid to announce their findings because it would not be well received by the Global Warming Religion. And it wasn't, that's for sure. The two scientists were accused of "heresy" by their friends (which clearly has a religious flavor to it).

You know there is a problem when a belief, like Global Warming, is shown to be true by a "concensous" of scientists!!! Nothing in science and engineering is ever proven to be true by concensous. Yet every day we hear how this many or that many scientists believe in Global Warming. That is the ONLY way they can convince people that it is true. The facts just aren't there! It must be a true religion since the majority beleive in it. RIGHT?

WRONG!!!

Mark my words! Now that the Democratic Party controls the governemt, we will be paying through the nose for more and more research into Global Warming. It will be taught in our public schools and our children will soon believe that it is a fact. They will be told that man is to blame and that unless we spend billions and billions of our taxes on reducing CO2 the world will be destroyed.

Those who don't accept the Global Warming Religion are already being fired from their jobs in government and education. Some states are already limiting the amount of CO2 that your car can produce. They are also struggling with what to do about cow flatulence that accounts for a large percentage of Methane gas. Maybe we will have to get rid of cows and go without milk. I guess we can drink soy milk.

I do my best to expose the fraud of Global Warming but I am just one voice. Luckily there are bigger voices like Rush Limbaugh who see it for what it is....a HOAX..and try to expose it on the radio.

However, there is big money behind Global Warming and it is a popular religion. Those who speak against it are very unpopular and even hated.

After all, it seems so kind and soft and warm and thoughtful to save the earth from bad cars and bad cows and bad plants and bad Republicans.

Thank goodness we have Pelosi in charge.

Swine Flu - Media Mania

We have always had the flu. It is an illness of the respiratory system and if it gets bad can lead to Phnemonia and eventually death. In 1918 a huge number of people died from it. Even now, over 30,000 people die from the flu each year in the USA alone! And that is with the best medical care in the entire world!

A week ago, the crazy liberal media found out that someone in Mexico had contracted swine flu. It has the same symptoms as bird flu and all the other kinds of flu; sore throat, aches, pains, cough, congestion. It also has the same risk of complications and death.A week has passed. There are now 257 confrimed cases of Swine Flu throughout the entire world. Did I say "ONLY 257 cases"? I meant to say "ONLY". There have been 7 deaths in Mexico and 1 in the US from Swine Flu.Suddenly we have a world wide crisis on our hands. It is worse than an epidemic...it's a Stage 5 Pandemic! Everyone is running around wearing masks, or hoods. Trips and flights are being canceled. Schools are being closed. Pigs are being slaughtered. Panic is spreading through the streets! The World Health Organization (WHO) as well as our wonderful new US Presidency have warned us to avoid planes and subways and taxis. The headlines on every web page and newspaper warn about the crisis. HEAVEN PLEASE HELP US!!!!!

Now calm down everyone...let's see....7 days have passed since the first case was reported. Help me do the math... Let's see, there are about 30,000 deaths in the USA from the other kinds of flu each year. That converts to 82 deaths per day in the US. Multiply that by 7 days and we get 575 deaths this past week from the normal kinds of flu. Are you starting to see a problem here?Why is the world in a crisis over 8 Swine Flu deaths over the entire world when we lost 575 people from the regular flu over the same week in the US alone?"

Why?" you asked.

That is an excellent question!

THE MEDIA!

It is a fact that this entire panic is being caused by the media. But WHY? What do they have to gain? What is their motivation?

Is it for money?

They are certainly selling more papers and ads than last week, and many of the newspapers are hurting from a bad economy. It COULD be for money. I have several friends at work that say that money and profit is the real reason!

Is it for power and control?

Now that's a thought. The media loves to use their power and influence to help a good cause. They elected Obama didn't they? When the media believes that they are right, they will do whatever they can to get the world to agree with them. It is their duty.

Some have said that this whole thing is designed to punish Mexico.

For what? For selling drugs to the US citizens? For sending their poor, unemployed, criminals to our land as illegal aliens? This is definitely a possiblity.

I believe it is for all of those reasons!

Personally I resent that it is happening and that the people of the world are allowing it to happen. They are running around like a bunch of idiots wearing masks and hoods and begging for vaccines.

Our secretary at work left for a Mexico vacation the very day that they announced the flu scare. She is due back on Monday. Our company president called to tell me that she was going to be quarantined for three days after she returned. I thought he was kidding me. He wasn't kidding. This whole thing is ridiculous and we are letting it happen. I wrote a letter to the editor this morning and told him my thoughts. I told him that we had had enough of the flu scare and he needed to move on. "Your headlines are boring!" I wrote.

Maybe he will write back.....before the flu scare is over