Hockey Stick Curve

Posted on 30/09/2020 by Grumpa Joe

The southwestern section of Cook County, Illinois is a glacial esker. It seems a few years ago the area was covered in a thick slab of ice which is called a glacier. In fact, most of what we call the mid-west was under the same glacier which extended north to the North Pole. That’s a whole lot of ice. As the glaciers receded they scraped tons of rock and soil with them and as the ice melted the rocks and soil deposited in a hill referred to as the esker. Now, I’m pretty old but I don’t remember any one talking about the local glacier in my time. So the story about the esker must be fake news handed down for eons from generation to generation. Some genius must have written it down for us to study in grammar school.

We all know that a bowl of ice left out on the kitchen counter top will eventually turn to water. It seems that ice melts at temperatures above thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit. And so it seems that since ice in a bowl on the kitchen countertop is in an atmospheric temperature higher than thirty-two. The ice melts because of atmospheric warming caused by human intervention. The intervention being caused by a thing called a thermostat hanging on one of the interior walls of said atmosphere. If the bowl of ice drops the temperature lower than one can stand, then it is human nature for one to tweek the thermostat to raise the temp to compensate for the loss of comfort. How long do you think it took for the natives to light warming fires large enough to melt a twenty-foot thick glacier that extends from Chicago to the North Pole? The natives were burning fossil fuel and thus adding to the phenomenon of the ice melt. But did they have an effect on how fast the ice melted? Perhaps, but how big was the effect? Eventually, the ice melted and the only trace of it is in the esker it left behind. Just how much does history attribute to the Indians causing the glaciers to melt? Nada, zero, nothing, the story isn’t even believable so why be concerned about it?

# Ice Age. MYA. 5. Current Ice Age. (aka Quaternary Glaciation) ~ 3 to now. 4. Karoo Ice Age. ~ 350 to Andean-Saharan glaciation. ~ 460 to Sturtian/Marinoan glaciation. ~ 850 to Huronian glaciation. ~ 2400 to

Last night I watched the Presidential debate, or slug-fest-shouting-match between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Aside from listening to what Biden had to say about the virus which was the exact script of what Trump did to fix the problem, the only other thing that caught my attention was Biden’s diatribe about global warming which he stole from Obama. He really believes that man-made global warming will melt the glacial ice at the north and south poles. Just how much does history attribute to the Indians causing the glaciers to melt? And he is telling us that it is going to happen in our lifetime. Just think about all the high paying jobs that we will have if we just give up using fossil fuels. Better yet, imagine that you were in your gas burning chariot on the way to work one morning and the entire globe runs out of gas. We all come to a rolling halt in our tracks. Who would we call for help? The world is not ready to deal with that scenario because the alternative fuels are not in existence nor in anyone’s imagination as of today. Oh yeah we will have windmills to generate electricity and that can power our electric cars, or we’ll have solar power to generate electricity on cloudy days, and at night.

We are so far away from providing alternate fuels that it isn’t even imaginable. At the same time we still have plenty of oil in the ground to keep us going. When we finally reach the point where fossil fuels are no longer available and the costs go up we will figure out how to deal with the problem because we are smart enough to do it for money. By the way folks, even if we in the USA get educated overnight and begin to reduce our carbon emissions to reduce global warming, what will we do about China? I just watched video of automobile production in the world, and yes, China now makes more cars than any other country. They aren’t all electric either. So, I guess it will be absolutely necessary for us to elect Joe Biden so we can watch China use all of our gasoline while we pay for it in taxes, and personal sacrifices.

Just who is contributing to global warming?

Getting back to the subject of jobs, high paying jobs, what will they be? Just who is researching what the new energy sources will be? Most likely it is oil companies because when oil runs out they need another source. My guess is that we should be tapping into real solar power directly from old sol. The puny solar cells of today will not give us what we need, not even if we cover the entire surface of Earth with solar cells, with wind mills planted in-between. We might even have to go to the moon to find oil? Well er, except that there is no foliage there to convert into fossil fuel.

Do you want to do something about man made global warming? Kick China and India’s ass to cut their emissions. When they catch up to the USA we will be happy to do more.

The airlines have been severely curtailed since COVID struck the planet. Airplanes are a major contributor to air pollution and carbon emissions. The reduced need for airplanes has to have set back global warming by as much as ten degrees. Oh, forgive me but I forgot that we haven’t been able to measure any change in global temperature, and the only science we have is attributed to a paper published by Michael Mann on how the temperature of the planet has changed over the past fourteen hundred years. The curve looks like a hockey stick laying flat with the shovel pointed straight up. It caused a stir in the world of global warming. Mann based his findings on 29 years worth of data and in geological terms that is but a nanosecond of time. The blade on his hockey stick is but a mere blip on the world temperature curve. Imagine making an investment with your life savings based on a steep rise in stock prices believing that the rise will continue, and then in an instant the same curve drops into oblivion. Remember the earth was cold at one time and covered in ice, Then global warming happened and the ice melted but to this day no one can tell me how fast it melted or how many years it took to happen. I see Mann’s prediction of global temperatures much the same as I saw the guru’s prediction that Covid-19 deaths would be in the millions or billions. The predictions were based on the information on hand. Mann’s numbers are a drop in the bucket of Earth’s existence.

Finally, I wish you a happy future existence in the world of Green New Jobs based on government’s spending to convert us to clean renewable energy.

. . . and that’s all I want to say about that.

Filed under: Conservative, economy, Science | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Menage a Trois

Posted on 29/09/2020 by Grumpa Joe

Today was one of those days where I didn’t accomplish a darn thing. I had one appointment on my calendar at 3:45 and I missed it. I went to the meeting, but it was already finished.

I had early morning shock when I took my window blind in for repair. The price for replacing the string on this unit was twenty dollars higher than the last one I had fixed in in May. Thankfully, the last repair date was written on the frame in small print. This particular blind was serviced in 2015. I guess opening and closing a blind 1825 times is enough to wear out the polyester string that makes it happen. I thought sixty bucks was expensive when I paid for the last one, but now I have to shell out $80.

I invited my house partner to ride with me, and of course she invented an agenda of her own. She is famous for visiting deli’s for her ethnic food desires. I dropped her off at not one, but two different deli’s. By the time I got home is was past lunch so I snacked and did not eat a substantial KETO lunch. Guess what? I lacked energy all afternoon. I’m learning that eating a substantial KETO breakfast is necessary to maintain my body-machinery. This morning I opted for a small sandwich using a brand new loaf of KETO bread I baked the day before. It was a good sandwich, but evidently not enough to give me the energy I needed. It was a low fat sandwich that did it.

I made up for the energy deficiency by eating a very ample KETO supper. Now, I feel better and I am no longer cold. My hands are finally warm and my body warmth is much better. I find that after losing weight I get cold easily. I guess having a thick layer of fat all around helps keep me warm.

As soon As I post this piece of useless information I will retire to the TV to watch the first Presidential Debate between Biden and Trump. I am afraid that it will bore me to pieces and I will escape to the universe of streaming tv programs non-stop for the remainder of the night. I have learned that my favorite program, Heartland, is out of episodes after thirteen seasons. I happily watched thirteen years worth of a story in less than eight months. Production of season fourteen has been slowed because of COVID-19 and I’ll not see my favorite family until 2021 as the production company rushes to catch up with new product. In the meantime, I find myself watching movies again.

I found a remake of one of my favorites called The Grand Seduction which was done in 2013. It is an English language version of a French Canadian film titled Seducing Dr. Lewis made in 2003. I have watched the original five times over the last ten years and I still love it. The two films are nearly carbon copies of each other in content, but the characters in the 2013 version are not nearly as interesting as they were in the 2003. Another difference was in color. For some reason the new version was not as rich in color as the first. I give Seducing Dr. Lewis five stars and The Grand Seduction four stars. I’ll watch the 2003 version again and again.

The theme of the story centers on a small harbor town on an island in the St. Lawrence river in Quebec province. Their livelihood was fishing but Canadian government regulated them out of business. They now subsist on a monthly check from the government. They hate it. Their mayor is seeking a new company to settle on their island so they can all work again and feel human once more. They find a company but the business requires that they have a resident doctor. They do not have a doctor, and there begins the story.

This story is serious drama but the creativity exhibited by the population is comedic and keeps things moving along. In one scene the mayor is frustrated and can’t sleep. He walks the town at night and winds up entering the home of his associate who is sleeping. The mayor enters his bedroom and plops down in bed next to him. The two men speak of the problem when the partner’s wife pops up and makes a comment that the neighbors will talk about their three-way bedroom tryst. This story is sad, funny, and also up lifting.

The Grand Seduction 2013 -* * * *
Seducing Dr. Lewis 2003 * * * * *

Filed under: Aging, Biography, economy, family, Government, Movie Review | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

The Odds Are In Our Favor

Posted on 28/09/2020 by Grumpa Joe

This past week has been outstanding weather wise. I have fallen in love with fall. Whenever the temperatures are in the seventies and the days are sunny, I am in love again. On Friday morning I awoke early and dressed for a chilly day. My Lions club was staining a park playground called Fort Frankfort. The weather called for sixty , but it was in the fifties when I dressed in layers for the day. Thank God I layered. By eight-thirty I was peeling and by nine I was in my tee shirt. The following day I dressed lighter and the weather was what I expected the day before. We had a strong wind and the temp didn’t get to be sixty until almost noon. I wished I had my yesterday clothes. Friday we had a total of seven volunteers and Saturday we signed in three times as many. The job went faster and we were putting on finishing touches by eleven.

Frankfort is a successful little town because of it’s volunteers. Fort Frankfort was funded and built by the hands of volunteers. For the past forty years we have run a successful Craft Fair every Labor Day weekend all managed and staffed by volunteers. The craft fair peaked at a half million visitors in 2019, in 2020 it peaked at zero. The volunteers got a surprise week end off.

The activity of the weekend took my mind off of the fruitless rioting of communist inspired mobs in and around the country. Chicago continues to log forty-plus shooting injuries every week-end with at least ten shots connecting and killing the target. We often challenge the daily Iraq war death tolls. Our police force can be defunded just because they are not working very hard at reducing the senseless shootings. I really don’t blame them. Any attempt by them to interfere with gang activities would no doubt raise a huge outcry from the political stem of government. I would rather we defund the Aldermen and the city Administration than the police. The police often stop bullets, Alderman do not stop anything except hands extended with cash.

The headlines today are exposing Trump’s tax returns, and I am not surprised that he is being found to be within his legal rights to take lawful deductions. I suspected as much, but the communist party needs to make big news about nothing. The next announcement will be made by the Attorney General’s office to report findings of the Durham investigation.

I just wish the government would begin doing what we elect them to do and that is to govern the country. Instead they talk themselves into believing that their sole role is to oversee the President’ s activities. In the meantime they themselves are guilty as sin on may matters but deny any involvement or wrong doing. They are the classical cartoon of the fox guarding the hen house.

I propose that we initiate a new law forbidding politicians to get involved with anything outside of writing laws that will better the country, repealing laws that do not work, and improving laws that do. Instead we have laws which have never been used being resurrected to take advantage of a situation that might resemble the original situation that the law was originally written for two hundred years ago. Who in the hell remembers all the vague old laws?

I am all in favor of improving our immigration laws. We have ignored the laws for so many years that we have created a crisis condition in the country. I normally wouldn’t care, but in the past five years I have become acquainted with a number of fine people who came into this country for the purpose of making a better life for themselves. If they had only arrived five years ago, I would still be taking a hard line on them friends or not. They have however been residing here for well over twenty years. They brought toddlers with them. These kids have gone to our schools, their parents have worked for our companies or for us, and have been model citizens. They do not pay taxes, they do not vote, they do not have social security numbers, and therefore they don’t get any of the fringe benefits we accuse them of taking from us. Within their group however is a larger faction that are using counterfeit or stolen SSN’s and can and do use every benefit it can get for them. Many of these people make less than the declared poverty level salary and thus file income tax forms to get a giant bonus tax return every year. Of course the newer immigrants all play that system that gets them the bennies.

How are we to deal with this matter? Do we get tough and deport twenty plus million citizens? I don’t think so, although the laws they are living under say we should be doing that.

In the mean-time we have one party of government pandering for open borders and free passage between countries such that the border areas would be inhabited by a of blend of people from several countries. For instance, Mexicans living on the U.S. side to get jobs, and Americans living on the Mexican side to take advantage of a lower cost of living, no taxes, etc. What no one is thinking about is how long this happy arrangement would work before the blended area extends so far into the country that neither Mexico or the United States of America exists any more.

What this stupid open border policy leaves out is mention of people crossing through Mexico and Canada to take advantage of the lack of borders. At the same time those people landing at airports coming from South America, Europe, Asia, are held to the immigration rules of years ago. The whole thing is a giant quagmire that will only get messier as the Leftists gain more power. When will they realize that the people will rise against them? The odds are that three hundred and forty million people railing against the five hundred and thirty five will prevail.

Filed under: Conservative, family, Government, Immigration | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

Will I Ever See the Inside of Church Again?

Posted on 23/09/2020 by Grumpa Joe

Why do I need to make a reservation to visit the Lord? He was never that busy before to not let me in. This time, however, it is not because He is busy, it is because government thinks it is safer to stay away from Church. Safer? Since when did visiting with God depend on my safety? I would rather place myself in harms way than to avoid the Almighty. Dying may not be so bad after all. Isn’t that the goal of life is to die? Dying gets us to the pearly gates, it may not get us in, but at least we may get to see the gates. Who knows perhaps I’d get a sneek peek at God Himself when the gate opens for someone to enter?

Religion is not something I normally discuss out loud and never in public. Unlike politics, which I shoot myself in the foot with all the time. Politics is different than religion, thank God for that. It would be nice, though if politicians practiced their faith more when running for office. I too often get the feeling that I am supposed to forgive all the lies and deceit spewed by politicians as political rhetoric. Somehow lies become allowed when speaking politically. I would really like politicians to tell me their personal definition of a lie.

One of the most common arguments comes from taking a statement out of context and labeling it a lie. For instance. Back in January, he said the Chinese COVID-19 Virus is harmless.” three months later after science has proved that COVID-19 is deadly, we claim the speaker told a lie. Duh! At the time he said it he based his statement on the scientific evidence of the day. It wasn’t a lie it was a statement that has been proven wrong by time. Yet, I detect false claims of lies almost daily on the news.

Polls are another form of lie. Yesterday I reported counting yard signs along the highway in Wisconsin and took an impromptu poll. I reported that Biden was ahead of Trump in Wisconsin. Did my poll really prove that? No. Polls need data, lots of data that can be statistically calculated with some degree of certainty that the prediction is correct. I venture to say that six yards signs on a short piece of highway is not statistically accurate. When I worked as an engineer, I was always placed in a situation where I needed to come up with answers immediately. Most times I was trying to determine if a new design was better, stronger, etc. than the standard. With the time I had to do the work I used a method I had developed to make the assessment. Years later After taking a course in statistics I learned that my method was one of pure guesstimating. I had a fifty fifty chance of making an accurate choice between designs. Now, when I hear reports stating that a poll shows one candidate ahead of another I laugh and dismiss it completely. The trouble is that average citizens do not look at the statistical relevancy of a poll, they merely remember the result they hear reported. To me that report constitutes a lie, but the result is touted as the truth.

When I look at candidates, I try to assess them relative to past performance. If it is a new candidate who never had a political life before, it is harder, but I then look at the candidates character and his record in his current job. If the candidate has been in office before I look at his promises and measure them against his results. Did he keep his promises. Did I believe the promises he made were in alignment with my own politics? If he kept his promises then I would be prone to vote for him. If he made promises, but absolutely no effort to fulfill them I will not vote for him, he is liar using political rhetoric only to gain my vote.

The one thing I had against Obama was his promise to “fundamentally change America.”

“Into what?” I asked, Obama never really answered that but during the course of the campaign he let out little hints that he was heading the country toward Communism. One particular hint came during a discourse with Joe the Plumber at a rally.

Another political scheme is to use the free press as your personal propaganda machine. It was no secret that the Democrats control the political message. The lazy free press buys the lies they are fed hook line and sinker and never challenge any of them. To this day, the free press that the Founder’s said was necessary to keep politicians honest has chosen to become an integral part of the machine. They constantly manufacture news by manipulating videos, photos, and interviews to lead people to their way of thinking. All of it is a giant lie. It is hard to understand which news organizations meet the Founder’s concept of reporting fairly.

My choices for political office all boil down to whose message and reporting do I trust the most. Of course that comes only after I chose the candidate that most closely agrees with my own political ideology.

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Escape

Posted on 22/09/2020 by Grumpa Joe

Some of you may have noticed that I didn’t post for a few days nor did I reply to comments. Last week I finally decided it was time to kick COVID down the road; I took a road trip to visit Wisconsin. Along the drive I began to notice yards signs for Biden/Harris. Not just real estate sized signs, but huge 4 feet by 6 feet signs. Being in farm territory the signs were big so people would notice. I was beginning to regret coming into such hostile territory when a Trump sign appeared, then another and another. I would say that Wisconsin is more for Biden. I also now know why we refer to them as cheese heads, and it’s not because of the Green Bay Packers either.

I stopped at a truck stop to relieve the pressure on my prostate and spotted a tall thin black man hawking tee shirts outside. The front of the shirt said “Biden Sucks”, the back of the shirt said “Nancy Swallows.” He was selling them like hot cakes. I resisted

Today I heard that our governor has declared Wisconsin out of bounds. Anyone entering Illinois from Wisconsin will have to self quarantine for fourteen days before making contact with the general population. What is a person to do? Sit in his car for two weeks? I say that decree is long past being effective because the COVID numbers are in decline. That announcement should have been declared on March first. That is what happens when we put the Governor in charge of protecting us. It is also an indicator of the guys ability to think rationally.

I found the people of Wisconsin in strict adherence with their state recommendations. They all wore masks, kept their distance and generally were friendly. The restaurants and bars were open for inside seating. The towns I visited were on lakes so most people wanted outdoor seating on the shoreline. Shops selling stuff had sanitizer at the entrances with signs asking people to please squirt some on your hands to kill any COVID you may have picked up at the last place you were in.

Tramping through tee shirt shops didn’t really turn me on and the only place I did get turned on was out of bounds for me, an art gallery. I saw two large oils that I would have popped for if I weren’t selling all my stuff to simplify.

Note the price difference. I thought it is hilarious.

To make my life easier, I self declared this a cheat weekend and KETO be damned. I ate stuff like a crazy person, bread, pastries, ice cream, and sugary fruits. Life is too short not to enjoy it. It was in direct opposition to my goal of losing the beer belly which I developed while enjoying life over the past twenty years. I hate my beer belly. It gets in the way of too many things, and since I can’t seem to keep food in my mouth lately the droppings always land on my belly and dirty a nice clean shirt.

There were not many people enjoying the lake on boats. I think because it is mid-September many of the boats have been pulled from the water already. The weather was ideal for water sports, in the mid-seventies, no wind, and continuous sun.

I woke up Saturday morning to find a Harvest Festival going on under my window. There was not a single warning sign anywhere about it, but the locals were already streaming in by 7:30 a.m. Everyone followed the rules. I stopped at the Lions booth to learn what they were selling: roasted corn and baked potato. Too bad I just had a huge breakfast.

One thing I found hugely obvious is the number of Mexican businesses in town; four restaurants, a western wear shop, smaller super mercados, a bar, and a barber shop that was open on Sunday all within two blocks on Main street. They have landed and are obviously not letting anybody get in the way of their making a better life for themselves.

The biggest mishap of this adventure was leaving the charger for my lap top at home. I was able to watch a single episode of my favorite series when the Mac died. That was really the main reason I didn’t post during the trip. It forced me to watch conventional TV, but the picture was not HD and I hated it. All my reading material is on the lap top, so I couldn’t read a book, I resorted to the Enquirer tabloid, but that only took thirty minutes to read cover to cover. I got sucked in by a headline declaring Michelle Obama was sick of Barrack and wanted to throw him off the roof. Inside, the story didn’t have anything harsh to say about the couple, In fact I thought they wasted the ink on it. I’m sure the Enquirer doesn’t give a rats ass about not delivering all they wanted was for me to drop the money for their tabloid, and they succeeded.

I sat in the quiet room on Saturday evening thinking it was only yesterday that I left home. It felt like a week ago. The getaway succeeded in taking my mind off the drone-like life I have been leading.

Oh yeah, the soy beans are yellow and the corn husks are beginning to shrivel like they are drying out too. Soon the bright green Deere harvesters will be smoking away in field after field stripping the ground of its summer output.

. . . and that is all I want to say about that.

Filed under: Biography, economy, family, liberals | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

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