Brians Blog: September 2010

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Trilobites

The following are pictures of some trilobites that I found near Miner's Hollow a few miles north of my house. Val Gunther of geo-tools.com directed me to the location in a shale layer at about 5,800 feet. These are just small examples, no bigger than one inch. If you want some really big ones contact Val.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Nuclear Power Marketing

Here is a question that I asked Dr. Gary North:

As a registered, professional engineer, I am unabashedly pro-commercial nuclear power and I don't understand why most Americans are dead set against it. Do you know why? Is this some response Americans have learned from Jane Fonda?

Dr. North's response:

It is mainly because engineers are mutes. They do not try to persuade laymen of anything. They have remained silent for 40 years, as the anti-nukes have told their story. It's like global warming. The scientists who know better are silent. In both issues, Arthur Robinson (and Petr Beckmann before him, ed.) has taken the lead in Access to Energy. But one man with a small-circulation newsletter cannot reverse the trend.

Power companies are monopolies. Their managers are fearful of public debate. They just go with the flow. The flow is anti-nuclear.

If energy companies had any sense, they would create a website that handles these topics at 5 levels: YouTube demonstration ("Mr. Wizard"), newspaper article style, Atlantic Monthly style, Scientific American style, and Ph.D in nuclear physics style. All those brains. So little salesmanship.

So, this blog is my small attempt to give engineers a voice and reverse this anti-nuclear trend.

A Modest Proposal

On the radio the other day, it was announced that the local police and associated agencies were having a drug round up for unused prescription medicines. The public was duly warned that flushing prescriptions down the toilet would cause unspeakable harm to aquatic life since actual scientists had detected traces (parts per million/billion/trillion?) in the municipal effluent of some cities (Chicago, Washington, ???).

Also, we were told that keeping them around could make us the targets of crack heads looking for a high. Additionally, just throwing them out could be tempting for dumpster divers and "our children".

I couldn't agree more, but for different reasons. I also wouldn't put them into the hands of the police and other official worthies. I propose to sell them back to the pharmacies, which is currently prohibited by federal law.

If the medication was sold in blister packs, then it would be tamper proof and could be taken back to the pharmacies for cash and credit. There is no reason to dispose of perfectly good pills just cause you don't need them anymore. Only Karnak on the Potomac prohibits this because it is in the pay of Big Pharma (among many, many others).

It is my opinion that if such a modest proposal is opposed and refused by the Federales, that is just proof that they have no intention of doing anything except jawboning to reduce the cost of health care.

Do you ever hear complaints from the recipients of the ever increasing health care costs?

Sunday, September 19, 2010

There is No Iowa in Mexico

When is "Made in Mexico" better than "Made in the US"? When we are talking about soft drinks. (And who knows what else?)

Why's that? Because there is no Iowa in Mexico. By that I mean that the Iowa caucuses (because they are first in the nation, give Iowa significant political power that has been used to distort and subsidize their major crop - corn) that have led to the distortions in the politics of the the US and the use of corn and corn derivatives in everything imaginable, including burning corn-based ethanol for motor fuel. This is the very height of insanity!

However, Mexican soft drinks are sweetened with real sugar and they taste much better, with no lingering bitter after taste. Global trade allows us to buy Mexican drinks that are sweetened with real sugar and no HFCS. And did I mention that they taste better?

That doesn't mean that Mexico doesn't have its own political distortions and problems. Every place does and some are worse than others. It must have been Machiavelli that taught modern statecrafters to direct the attention of their subjects to the foreign monsters, instead of reflecting inward at our own mistakes and changing what is actually within our power instead of trying to change foreigners.

If Vermont or New Hampshire had the first caucuses in the US, then rest assured that we would have maple syrup for sweetener in everything and maple syrup solids as food additives in everything and we would be burning maple syrup derived ethanol in our cars.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

A Tale of Two Engines

The RV-12 and the Sonex/Waiex are two Light Sport Aircraft. (Click here for an explanation of Light Sport Aircraft.) I have written about the Sonex in other posts, but I would like to discuss the engines options of these two aircraft.

The RV-12 uses the popular Rotax 912 ULS, while the Sonex/Waiex uses the AeroVee (the Jabiru 2200 or 3300 are the other options). I like both airplanes and both manufacturers. Both have been in business a long time and are respected in the industry. What I want to really compare are the prices for the Rotax and the AeroVee.

Van's lists the powerplant kit (includes the Sensenich propeller) for $26,165, while you can see that the entire price, including the AeroVee engine for the Sonex is $26,000. Yes, the Rotax 912 ULS is 100 hp, while the AeroVee is barely 80 hp, but the Rotax is 3 times the money ($6,495 versus ~$20,000 for the Rotax 912 ULS) .

Now, I don't have any hard reliability data on either engine, but I am forced to favor the AeroVee for mostly financial reasons. Yeah, I'd like to fly behind the Rotax in a RV-12, but financial considerations hold me back. What do you think?

I'm a Liar

I'm a liar. In a post I wrote last year, I said that I would buy a light sport aircraft if it were $25,000 or less. A couple of months ago, I had an opportunity to buy this very nice Sonex for that exact price, but I didn't do it. Take a look at the specs:

Serial No. 475

N129SX

Engine:

Aerovee/Hummel engine conversion

2387cc, 90hp at 3350

True Nicom cyl. 94mm

86mm crankshaft, forged chromalloy, cb performance, and is nitrated

Force 1 prop hub

Rotec throttle body

Approx $8900 invested in engine alone. Runs great!!!!

Avionics:

Stromaster Enigma with attitude, gps, hdg, g meter, fuel flow, all options

X-com radio with remote tuning from Enigma

Intercom with CD/mp3 music input with automute

Microair x-ponder

Extra Avmap/GPS

Airframe:

Professional custom paint

Dual stick trainer version

Taildragger

Airframe and engine only have 60 hrs on them and climbing. Total invested approx. $33k.

I guess my only excuse for not buying the plane is that I am a chicken and I am worried about the job outlook. I certainly wouldn't want to buy this plane and have to turn around and sell it next year because I got layed-off from my job. And, of course, my flying buddy is in the same boat.

So now, I am in a quandary on what to do next. I would like to get more involved in general aviation, but am hesitant to buy a plane and renting seems so mundane.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Stacked Enchiladas

This is one of the finest examples of New Mexican food on the planet. Mom learned to make these when we lived in Silver City, New Mexico. The corn tortillas are deep fried in oil and removed while still soft then dipped in enchilada sauce. Cooked ground beef and cheese are placed between alternating layers of tortillas and topped off with a fried egg, more sauce and lettuce. Muy amable, Caro!

Culture

The self-educated individual – confident in his gender, his heritage, his religion, and the traditional culture that he seeks to project into the future – stands as a threat to the very existence of the state: He does not need its ministrations.

Where then to begin the creation of capitalist culture? The destruction of the moral pretenses of the state is the irreducible first step toward the realization of a capitalist culture….

Terry Hulsey

I would add:

The destruction of the moral pretenses of the state is the irreducible first step toward preserving traditional culture.

Delusionists

The delusionists are those who believe that the current system can be reformed, made more efficient, streamlined. The delusionists believe that government bureaucracies act on market-like incentives. The delusionists believe that those in government bureaucracy can be convinced to reduce their role and influence. The delusionists believe that the president is in control of the bureaucracies. The delusionists believe that government bureaucracies are led by good people just trying to do the right thing. The delusionists believe that individuals, acting as central planners, are even capable of identifying the right thing to do.

Bionic Mosquito

The State

"A state is absolute in the sense which I have in mind when it claims the right to a monopoly of all the force within the community, to make war, to make peace, to conscript life, to tax, to establish and disestablish property, to define crime, to punish disobedience, to control education, to supervise the family, to regulate personal habits, and to censor opinions. The modern state claims all of these powers, and, in the matter of theory, there is no real difference in the size of the claim between communists, fascists, and Democrats." - Walter Lippmann

Solving the Crisis of American Schooling

"The logic of compulsory schooling in the middle of a democracy is a contradiction of the original national charter; it breaks the contract of the Bill of Rights, using as its justification the excuse that kids can't learn any other way, that they can't be trusted with responsibility. The truth is exactly the opposite: unless they are trusted with responsibility they cannot learn much, and under the thumb of central compulsion the lessons they do learn are bad ones."

John Taylor Gatto, "A Different Kind of Teacher", pg. 193-194

Robert P. Murphy

In particular, the market interest rate coordinates the "intertemporal" (i.e., across-time) activities of investors, businesses, and consumers. If consumers become more future oriented and want to reduce consumption in the near term in order to provide more for later years, what happens in the free market is that the increased savings push down interest rates, which then signal entrepreneurs to borrow more and invest in longer projects. Thus resources (such as labor, oil, steel, and machine time) get redirected away from present goods, like TVs and sports cars, and the freed-up resources flow into capital or investment goods like tractors and cargo ships.

Now when the Federal Reserve artificially reduces interest rates below their free-market level, it sends a false message to entrepreneurs. Firms begin expanding as if consumers have increased their savings, but in fact consumers have reduced their savings (due to the lower interest rates). Businesses that churn out durable goods, such as furnaces, cargo ships, and, yes, houses will find business booming, because these sectors respond positively to low interest rates.

On the other hand, other sectors don't need to contract, because (unlike the scenario of genuine savings) nobody is cutting back on consumption. This is precisely why the Fed-induced boom is unsustainable — real resources have not been released from consumer sectors in order to fuel the expansion of the capital sectors. Because modern economies are so complex, the charade can continue for a few years, with entrepreneurs cutting corners and "consuming capital" (i.e., postponing necessary replacement and maintenance on equipment) while both investment and consumer goods keep flowing out of the pipeline at increased rates. But the music eventually stops, since (after all) the Fed's printing of green pieces of paper doesn't really make a country wealthier. When the Fed "cuts interest rates" it isn't really creating more capital for businesses to borrow; it is instead distorting the signal that the market interest rate was trying to convey.

From mises.org

Gary North

Gary North recently wrote a great article on the politico-economic outcome caused by the anti-nuclear media forces following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami:

"Energy is the key to output. This has been true for over 200 years. To control a primary source of energy is to get rich. China will be able to buy uranium by means of its output from uranium. It will convert uranium into wealth. It will do so with the lowest energy cost-per-output ratio of any nation. Its people will find employment.

I think this has shifted the balance of economic power away from India. India will face public resistance to nuclear power. China will not. India has a lot of advantages: English, the legal system, the free flow of ideas, and a lot of motivated, well-educated people. I am not saying that India will fall behind the world. It will advance. But with respect to the job market for millions of recent arrivals from rural districts, nuclear power will give China the edge.

The anti-nuke forces will never talk about this in public. They will never say publicly, "We have delivered the world's economy into the hands of China." But they will have done just that."

Lew Rockwell - again

The beauty and glory of economic science is that it consists in a series of laws and principles that do not change according to time and place. The prescription for prosperity and stability and human economic flourishing is always and everywhere the same: freedom of association, freedom of contract, freedom of enterprise, freedom to trade across borders without penalty, sound money that is redeemable in something besides paper, private property rights, wages and prices that adjust by market conditions, and a legal structure that shores up these institutions rather than undermines them.

James H. Polve

“Mechanical engineers design and manufacture machines, machines to help mankind, to ease his burden and to make like more abundant. Machine work supplants slave labor and provides power far in excess of muscle power to free men from hard labor and yet provides the means to accomplish. Automobiles, airplanes, tractors, electrical and nuclear power plants, steam plants and many other similar kinds of plants and machines are typical examples of design and manufacture by the mechanical engineer. His special abilities are aimed at coupling natural laws with natural materials to produce work. He channels energy available on earth, and wherever possible in the universe, through devices into more usable forms to aid man. He can multiply man’s strength and quickness through hydraulic, pneumatic, and electrical devices. He can transport men and goods faster, further, and more efficiently than man can walk or carry. He provides for warmth in the winter and coolness in the summer. He is aided and yet constrained by the physical laws and the characteristics of resources that surround him; and yet he has made great advances to free men somewhat from the edict ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, til thou return unto the ground’ (Gen. 3:19).”

Ted Rockwell - The Best Quote Ever

That tactic, of making problems out of advantages—making sow’s ears out of silk purses, I call it—permeates the whole nuclear enterprise. The advantage that radioactivity continually and automatically gets less and less toxic every day, is converted to, “it stays toxic for thousands of years.” And this is implied to pose an unprecedented problem that humanity is not equipped to deal with. And breakable light bulbs containing mercury are called “green,” and radioactivity is called uniquely hazardous.

http://www.nucleartownhall.com/blog/townhall-qa-rickover-to-the-renaissance/

Thesis Topics for Research

How much money will UTOPIA ultimately consume? Currently they have spent $516 million. I bet the total goes over $700 million before bankruptcy is declared.
Why does lightning occur with earthquakes? Is Harold Aspden's theory about this correct?
Where was Joseph, the Carpenter when Christ was crucified? Had he already died?
What was it like to be a Christian in the 1st century, when the Apostles were still alive?
What influences Americans against nuclear power?
Chinese Trade - what was it paid with in AD 800?
History of Property Taxes in Utah. When Brigham Young said "This is the right place", there weren't any property taxes.
What determines left or right-handedness?

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