Lots and lots of stuff is now in the web as Ebooks. All sorts of pulp fiction from the 1930's is out of copyright and up on the web for free. I have been building up a collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs and EE Smith stuff. The E-book format supports illustrations. The Ebooks mostly come with the original dust jacket art, or the original magazine art. If you are into old things, free ebooks are there, where as used book stores are gradually disappearing. Google will find anything, just search on the title or author and "ebook. Ebooks may be your chance to read that favorite childhood book that you haven't been able to find in stores anymore.
You don't need to buy an e-reader (Kindle, Nook, or iPad or tablet) to enjoy the goldie oldies. An ordinary desktop or laptop will play them just fine. You can download a reader program free of charge. In fact you have a choice of reader programs and there are on line reviews of them. There are several e-book formats, of which the .epub format is very common. You can find a reader program for any format.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Words of the Weasel, Leon Panetta
Panetta was on Meet the Press this morning. He said the Iranians are not building a bomb, but they are "increasing their nuclear capability."
What's really happening is the Iranians are working on purifying fissionables to weapons grade but may not have not started fabrication of the subcritical masses, the implosion sphere, or the bomb casing. Big deal.
But the first part of Panetta's statement "the Iranians are not building a bomb." is a clear falsehood.
What's really happening is the Iranians are working on purifying fissionables to weapons grade but may not have not started fabrication of the subcritical masses, the implosion sphere, or the bomb casing. Big deal.
But the first part of Panetta's statement "the Iranians are not building a bomb." is a clear falsehood.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Fixing Childhood Obesity
Uncle Sam is going to ban soft drinks and greasy potato chips from school vending machines. Fruit cups and yogurt would replace mozzarella sticks and nachos in the lunchroom. This is supposed to slim down chubby children.
Where are these calorie plagued schools?
My schools never had vending machines of any sort. And I brought my lunch in a brown bag. And for that matter, my children went to schools with no vending machines and I packed brown bag lunches for them every day.
Must be an inner city problem...
Where are these calorie plagued schools?
My schools never had vending machines of any sort. And I brought my lunch in a brown bag. And for that matter, my children went to schools with no vending machines and I packed brown bag lunches for them every day.
Must be an inner city problem...
Friday, February 1, 2013
Lithium Battery life
All Nippon Airlways reports having replaced ten lithium batteries in 787's BEFORE the current battery fire disaster.
Wow. Ten batteries in brand new aircraft. That's 10 battery failures in a fleet of 17 aircraft over a period of a little more than a year. We never had that kind of battery failure rate in USAF. A plain old car battery is expected to last 4 winters. These lithium batteries didn't even make it thru a single winter.
Wow. Ten batteries in brand new aircraft. That's 10 battery failures in a fleet of 17 aircraft over a period of a little more than a year. We never had that kind of battery failure rate in USAF. A plain old car battery is expected to last 4 winters. These lithium batteries didn't even make it thru a single winter.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Where has all the Gas Mileage Gone?
Wall St Journal was explaining about the differences between EPA fuel mileage and actual fuel mileage. For instance Ford Fusion was EPA rated at 28 mpg, but Consumer Reports, and owners, reported actual mileage of 24 mpg.
Talk about puny fuel mileage. My '99 Cadillac DeVille (V8 boat) could do 32 mpg highway and 27 overall. Why cannot a teeny weeny econocar with a wimpy motor do better than a full size Caddy with a real engine?
Ford could take lessons from Caddy. I finally replaced the beloved '99 Caddy with a 2005 Mercury Grand Marquis. Last of the Detroit V8 boats. With exactly the same size engine, the Mercury can only do 23 mpg and has a lot less power than the Caddy had.
Talk about puny fuel mileage. My '99 Cadillac DeVille (V8 boat) could do 32 mpg highway and 27 overall. Why cannot a teeny weeny econocar with a wimpy motor do better than a full size Caddy with a real engine?
Ford could take lessons from Caddy. I finally replaced the beloved '99 Caddy with a 2005 Mercury Grand Marquis. Last of the Detroit V8 boats. With exactly the same size engine, the Mercury can only do 23 mpg and has a lot less power than the Caddy had.
Immigration policy for Republicans
America needs immigrants. We as a nation are not bearing enough children to maintain our population. This is bad. It takes a large population to continue to be the superpower. We need young workers to keep the economy running as the senior generation retires. And to support all those retirees. China and Japan are showing what happens to a nation's demographics when birthrates decline.
Immigrants fill in for the lack of native born children, and once inside the US, they tend to have more children than native born so they keep the birthrate up. Immigrants make the most loyal US citizens, they know how good things are in the US and how much better off they are as US citizens than as citizens of where ever they came from.
Since we have created something pretty good here in America, everybody in the world would like to live here. So we can afford to be choosy about who we let in. We want young immigrants who will take jobs, pay taxes, raise families, stay out of trouble and contribute to the American society. We want immigrants with skills and advanced education; technicians, plumbers, electricians, medical doctors, engineers and scientists. We don't want so many immigrants that they swamp the native born and change the character of the country.
Our population is 300 million last time I checked. We could surely admit a mere one million immigrants a year without diluting the essence of America. Each would be immigrant is ranked, so many points for a STEM degree, so many points for being young, for being married, for speaking English, for having minor children, for having a company job offer, and so on. We admit the top scoring one million applicants, every one else waits til next year.
Then we need to do something about the 10 or 11 million illegal immigrants inside the country. Right now these people are outlaws. They don't dare go to the police when they are robbed, assaulted, swindled, or cheated. They don't even dare take out a public library card. Each time they drive they are in fear of a minor traffic stop getting them fired and deported. Most of 'em work hard, stay out of trouble and out of sight. They would make fine hard working citizens. Keeping them outlaws certainly doesn't accord with Jefferson's notion that all men are created equal.
I don't have the heart to deport them all. Keeping them on as outlaws is offensive to my sense of right and wrong.
Which gets around to the business of legalizing them. Was it me, I'd give anyone who has stayed out of trouble a green card, permission to work and live in the US. I'd offer real citizenship (right to vote, eligibility for social security and medicare) to anyone willing to jump thru a few more hoops.
Immigrants fill in for the lack of native born children, and once inside the US, they tend to have more children than native born so they keep the birthrate up. Immigrants make the most loyal US citizens, they know how good things are in the US and how much better off they are as US citizens than as citizens of where ever they came from.
Since we have created something pretty good here in America, everybody in the world would like to live here. So we can afford to be choosy about who we let in. We want young immigrants who will take jobs, pay taxes, raise families, stay out of trouble and contribute to the American society. We want immigrants with skills and advanced education; technicians, plumbers, electricians, medical doctors, engineers and scientists. We don't want so many immigrants that they swamp the native born and change the character of the country.
Our population is 300 million last time I checked. We could surely admit a mere one million immigrants a year without diluting the essence of America. Each would be immigrant is ranked, so many points for a STEM degree, so many points for being young, for being married, for speaking English, for having minor children, for having a company job offer, and so on. We admit the top scoring one million applicants, every one else waits til next year.
Then we need to do something about the 10 or 11 million illegal immigrants inside the country. Right now these people are outlaws. They don't dare go to the police when they are robbed, assaulted, swindled, or cheated. They don't even dare take out a public library card. Each time they drive they are in fear of a minor traffic stop getting them fired and deported. Most of 'em work hard, stay out of trouble and out of sight. They would make fine hard working citizens. Keeping them outlaws certainly doesn't accord with Jefferson's notion that all men are created equal.
I don't have the heart to deport them all. Keeping them on as outlaws is offensive to my sense of right and wrong.
Which gets around to the business of legalizing them. Was it me, I'd give anyone who has stayed out of trouble a green card, permission to work and live in the US. I'd offer real citizenship (right to vote, eligibility for social security and medicare) to anyone willing to jump thru a few more hoops.
Cannon Mt ski weather.
More woe. It stayed at 50 all day yesterday and last night. It rained a lot overnight. It's still warm and rainy this morning. The lawn is all green again.
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