Photoshopping an iPhone Picture taken at The Chicago Garden

The top one is the original.  The other two are photoshopped versions.

Am I Unique?

I am an athiest Libertatian.

Whoops!

. . . we're sorry!  There are certain sites I can't read because I repeatedly get this message.  I can't detect a pattern of which sites although it is common at The Reference Frame.  Today it was a story in  Real Clear Politics about how the class of 2012 was scammed.  Could it be purposeful or is it just a bug?

Irony

I went to an Amish woolen-mill outlet store and bought a Pendelton shirt made in China.

Hey Mister

The scene is a commuter station.  The speaker is an old man.

Hey Mister, do you want to see my pictures?

Oh, here's your train.  No, I won't be getting on.
I used to go down every day like you.
I went down last week, but so much has changed.
Do you know my job wasn't there any more.

The other people don't speak except as echoed.

Oh, have you seen these before?
Well, I have a lot more - maybe in this pocket.
Only a few fit in my wallet, but some of these are nice.
Oh, look, here's one of Jane standing on a boat -
Perhaps in London or in Rome.  Well, no matter.

When did she die? It was one . . . two . . . I believe Reagan was president.
Or was it Nixon?  Well, no matter.

I like the baby pictures best, they're all mine you know
Except the grandchildren, which ones are they?
It really gets so hard to keep them straight.

Some of them have animals.  Here's Mary with a dog.  I loved that dog.
I wonder where she is now.  Oh, well, no matter.  You didn't know her anyway.

You know I have six daughters.  Three are quite small and three are grown.
This fine young lady is Ruth.  No, that'ss not right.  Ruth is a baby.
I never see the babies any more.  I wonder where they are.

I don't like all these changes - why can't things stay the same?

Oh, yes, of course, I understand.
You have to catch your train.
Give my regards to Helen.  What?  That's not her name?  Well, no matter.

Hey, Mister, do you want to see my pictures?

Excesses

Too many laws.  Too many lawyers.  Too many regulations.  Too many bureaucrats.  Too many politicians.  Too many subsidies.  Not enough freedom.

Fortune

I have a keen sense of humor and bring out the best in others.  How do I know? My fortune cookie told me so. Bon Jour

Big Business

Those opposed to big business should remember that government is the biggest business of all.

Fair Share

There are two [at least] problems with Obama's demand that the top one percent pay their "fair share."  First, fair share is undefined.  Second, by anyone's definition [100%?] it represents only a dent in our financial problems.  Nevertheless, the request contributed to Obama's reelection and may have been decisive.
Concerning deductions, everyone seems to ignore the elephant in the room, namely:  tax-free interest on state and municipal bonds.  Why do you suppose that is?

Motto

May I say something today that will make somebody feel better.

Hi Everybody

I hope your New Year is all you want it to be. I spend my time these days taking pictures and working on them with Photoshop. I walk in the mall or at the Chicago Botanic Garden or in a big-box store. I work crossword and suduko puzzles. I read, mostly non-fiction. In late July and early August I spend four weeks in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I sit in classes at a statistical seminar. My nephew, Mike, who teaches there, takes me with him. We each get an apartment right by campus. Besides classes there are staff meetings and picnics. The students are mostly graduate or post-graduate and come from around the world. Right now I am enjoying the sights and making new friends in Put-in-Bay. This is the fourth time I have been to the island (once before Mary was here). I still live alone in a four-bedroon house in Northbrook, Illinois. Plenty of room if you happen to come this way. I enjoy good health and hope to do more traveling.

The sad news is that I am the last survivor of my siblings.

My Last Love

It's been almost two years.  Recently I googled her name for whatever reason.  I was shocked at what I found:  her obituary as of May 12, 2012.  No cause of death was given but by calling a neighbor of hers I learned that it was pancreatic cancer.  She was 70.  I'd spent some of the best years of my life with her.  My reasons for loving her were too numerous to list.

Found on another blog

Cause you're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

A Herd of Dirty Turtles

My Last Love

I should be over her by now.  I'm not.

Have you heard the expression . . .

"I don't know what to do with myself"?

Well, that describes me to a T.

Playing with i pi

We learn in math that e to the i pi equals -1.  [e in the base of the natural logarithim, i is the square root of minus 1, and pi is the ratio of the area of a circle to the radius squared.]  Squaring both sides gives e to the i pi squared equals 1.  Now e to the i pi squared equals e to the 2 i pi and 1 equals e to the 0.  Have I proven, falsely, that 2 i pi equals 0 so that i equals 0?  Actually not.  What I have proven (again falsely) is that 2 pi equals 0.  It's like saying that since sine of 2 pi equals sine of 0, then 2 pi equals 0.  And if you think in terms of angles, the angle 2 pi is the angle 0.  This is because sine of x is a cyclic function of x. Well, it turns out that e to the i x is also a cyclic function of x for e to the i x equals cos x plus i sin x.  In other words, it is a trigonomic function. 

I Was There

I bought a book today by David Weinberger titled "Too Big to Know" which seems to be of the "Oh, Wow!" genre.  He spent almost a page expounding on how big a number sextillion is.  What really caught my attention was "the most popular corporate computers of the 1950s the IBM 650.  With only only seventy-five of these machines installed anywhere . . . ."   "The 650 cost your company $500,000, equivalent to $4 million in 2011 dollars.  It's got its own room, its own fleet of maintenance folks, its own dress code:  white lab coats, please."  Well, I happened to be working with computers at an insurance company when we got our IBM 650.  "Only seventy-five" seems inconsistent with "most popular."  It didn't cost the company $500,000 because IBM didn't sell them, they leased them.  Ours didn't have its own room and the maintenance was by one IBM employee who wasn't there full time and as for white lab coats, nary a one.

There was a footnote:
5. Leonard Dudley, Information Revolution in the History of the West (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008), p. 266.

Useless Information

Recent posts discussed the amount of matter equivalent to the energy need to accelerate a Toyota Corrola.  Enen if my calculations are correct, which is doubtful, it is useless information. Obviously there is nothing in an automobile which can turn so small amount of matter into equivalent energy.  This is done elsewhere in a nuclear reactor by the fission of radioactive isotopes.  Even there, only a very small fraction of the mass becomes energy. The number of protons/neutrons remains the same. (This was true even in the atomic bomb.)  To find out how much, you need to compare the atomic weight of the isotope to the total atomic weight of the decay products.  [Way beyond me.]

Then there is a series of processes to convert heat to electricity and transmit to where it needs to be to charge the battery. There are energy losses along the way.

Oops!  The Corolla is not an electric car.

Silly Example

What is the equivalent energy in grams required to accelerate a car to sixty miles per hour in 15 seconds.

Data:
The car weighs 2800 pounds.
One pound equals 453.59 grams.
One mile equals 1.6 kilometers.
The speed of light is 300,000 kilometers per second.

Calculation:
(2800 x 453.59 x 1.6 / (60 x 9)) x 10 ^ -10

= 3.768 x 10 ^ -7

= 0.0000002768 grams

Next blog will cover why this is useless information.