A Flash of Hindsight

Original: (Saturday, September 15, 2007)

This has to be the

The Biggest D'OH of The Twenty-First Century.

Or, perhaps, any century. Someone actually measured the actual nutitional value of the latest-and-greatest crops produced by the Green Revolution, and discovered Oh My! that the nutritional value was less per unit weight than those old fashioned plants from the days of yesteryear. Crop Yields Expand, but Nutrition Is Left Behind. Now, I never think of things like this, until somebody else points it out. I'm not very inquisitive, I guess. But, this kind of thing seems so obvious in hindsight, I'm shocked! shocked!, that it never occurred to me that this would be the case.
Question: How do you make something bigger, faster?
Answer: Simplify the process.
Question: How Do You Do That?
Answer: Throw out the complex steps in the process.

It's the Mad Man Muntz industrial method. For those (many I imagine) who don't remember, Earl Muntz (Motto: "I WOULD GIVE 'EM AWAY, BUT MY WIFE WON'T LET ME--SHE'S CRAZY!") Mad Man Muntz Bio. Muntz was a marketeer who created his own products. Like Ron Popeil, on steroids. If you can imagine such a thing. Among other Muntz'iana was the Muntz TV. It was the original cheap TeeVee. How did he do it? Simple. He threw out all those unnecessary circuits, like the V.Hold and the H.Hold (If you don't remember those controls, you're on your own now. Let me recommend Wikipedia to you). Simple. Inexpensive. Easy to make. Everything was fine. Until...
Until a Pigeon pooped on the antenna. Or flew past it. Or, well, pretty much any kiind of unhappy meteorological event occurred. Then the teevee became unwatchable. Didn't have enough vitamins in it's circuitry, so to speak.

Now, I kind of wonder; are these missing trace compounds perhaps an explanation (or partial explanation) of the highly publicized Obesity Epidemic? It's pretty well understood that there's a kind of mental trigger that is supposed to kick in when you've eaten enough food that says: HEY! ENOUGH! Could it be that the trigger isn't reset by volume, or weight, or calories, but by some trace compound(s)? If so, then, in addition to my earlier prescription for preventing obesity: Walk, Don't Drive; there's another way to avoid excess weight. Eat Good Food. If you can find it, that is.
Coming soon:

Energy: Part 3

- which may (or may not) include yet a third way to avoid obesity. Probably Energy: Part 3 will come after Energy: Part 2; but nothing is certain in these uncertain times.

Upstairs - but no Downstairs...

Original: (Friday, March 25, 2005)

Back in the 1970's, when the rest of us were watching "Upstairs, Downstairs"...

it appears that George W. Bush was only watching "Upstairs,"...

Now George is travelling the country, touting his "ownership society". After a few years of investing in high-class stocks and bonds, he says, we will all be part of the ownership society. We'll have a nest-egg to leave to our children, who will be even richer!
To date, none dare call it what it is - the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. When we sell off our nest-egg for money to buy our food, pay our rent, and, most of all, pay our medicare premiums(!), who is going to redeem our bonds, buy our stocks? Why, our children! How much will they pay for these things? The more you make from your "personal account", the more they will pay to buy from you. Except for the brokers who skim their take from all this activity, who is going to make anything from the whole transaction?

When all is said and done, wealth is still created by work. Work in the classic physical science sense of expenditure of energy over distance, and also in the economic sense of making (or growing, or raising, or providing) something that has value for another. In short - someone has to do the work!
Thus, if there is no ",Downstairs" to perform work for "Upstairs," there won't be any wealth for anyone...

Try telling that to George...
This is in line with the misperception that I see voiced (see ... voiced...? Oh, well...) by some in the news. You know, when they insist that "our schools should teach everyone computer science." Donno about you, but I don't want a computer scientist to repair my car. Or my roof. Or grow my food. And I am a computer scientist!