Browsing the archives for the Heavy Lifting category

UNCERTAINTY

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10 Dec, 2013
Economy, Heavy Lifting, Investing, The Earth, Thoughts

Those who comment on the financial markets often mention that what is most obvious is uncertainty – those who trade in markets are uncertain about the future. In previous times there has not been firm certainty about the future, yet the current feeling is one of malaise (nod to President Carter).

It’s just not knowing whether markets are going up or down the next day; it’s more than that. It’s not knowing whether life will be as it has been in the past. It’s not just markets; it’s global warming, flooding major cities, population explosion, food and water shortages.

Who is certain that the global warming crisis will be solved in time (Humans do not solve problems that are not imminent)? What will happen when major seaboard cities have become unlivable? Where will the inhabitants have gone? What will happen when the poor in a country are fighting the rich for food and water? What will happen when poor undeveloped countries are “fighting” rich, developed countries for food and water?

It’s too late for contraception to head off the population explosion. The effects may be resolved by a nuclear war or the outbreak of a killer virus.

The people who trade in financial markets have these things in the backs of their minds. The man in the street on streets around the world have these things in the backs of their minds as they distrust their governments and other institutions to improve their lives. Even the Pope senses his church has “gone wrong.” He hopes trying to right its course may save it and its mission.

Our main certainty may be that no one and no movement can save us from possible calamities that will be the solutions to our major concerns.

https://manageknowledge.us/blog/?p=1389

Lemon Cures Callous

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25 Nov, 2012
Health, Heavy Lifting, Wisdom I Have Learned

For 30+ years, no make it 40 or 50, I’ve had a callous on the bottom of my left foot. I think it’s there because that foot stopped growing after I had polio as a child. That foot is about a size smaller than the right foot, yet I always buy shoes to fit both feet, so it’s sliding around inside a shoe that’s too big for it. Needless to say this callous has become the bane of my life, and it’s probably too late to start buying shoes to fit the foot. Over the years, especially the past twenty or so, I’ve tried everything I heard about to try to cure the callous. Doctors have made attempts… sometimes. Generally they look at me with that “well he’s gonna die soon enough from something so why spend a lot of money and effort on this?” look.

Somewhere recently – I don’t recall whether I was doing an active search or just stumbled into it – I ran into a suggestion (I think it was somewhere in www.ehow.com) that a slice of lemon can reduce the pain in a corn. Callouses are like corns, I thought; so, why not give the lemon a try? The past week or so I’ve gone to bed with a slice of lemon, ensconced in a gauze pad held on with copious adhesive tape and sheltered in a plastic sandwich bag, by all of that firmly attached to the callous on the bottom of my foot. In the morning when I remove it, sometimes some old skin wants to come off – I know “TMI – sometimes not, but all in all the callous is less bothersome. It’s still there, and it still hurts a bit, but it’s better than it has been IN YEARS.

https://manageknowledge.us/blog/?p=1280

Hunter-Gatherer or Farmer

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24 Dec, 2011
Gardening, Heavy Lifting, The Earth, Thoughts

One question is which is better for the health of us humans.  One student of the evolution of humans from hunter-gatherers opined it was the worst thing to happen to the human race: people had to work long hours most days instead of the estimated twenty hours a week that hunter-gatherers spent getting food (sometimes one another but I digress ). The farmers suffered more from disease because of living and working close together and they also didn’t live as long as those who weren’t eaten.  Also discoveries have revealed the earlier humans were as much as 6 inches taller than the later farmers.

The next question becomes why did they segue into farmers if it turned out to be unhealthy. There are a lot of reasons, all of which I don’t recall. One I recall is there was a big drought, and large groups of humans discovered each other as they gathered at one of the few extant oases. From this they drifted into farming to have a reliable food supply. Agriculture led to a stratification of classes; perhaps that stratification led to agriculture. With agriculture came monogamy or at least the virtue of the female as desirable, especially since it allowed the male to be sure which children were his. Free love died along with the cultivation of wheat! But, then they did have more time and the ingredients for making beer – there are always compensations.

https://manageknowledge.us/blog/?p=1131

Sayonara Lisa Thanks for Speedreading Record!

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15 Dec, 2011
Heavy Lifting, The Universe, Thoughts

Lisa Randall’s book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door, took me to new heights in speedreading. I was able to whiz through chapters that were attempting to explain the innards of such things as the Higgs Boson whatever, page by undigested page. I guess I was looking for an overview of particle physics for the layman, if such a thing is even possible, along with an understandable discussion of how the “scientific approach” applies to day-to-day living and problem solving. Instead I got so much more detail on scientific history and progress than I could ever process.

Among the newer information I retained was a reinforcement that the universe is flat – less than 1% variation from being FLAT.  Additional items included that it is all there is (the universe isn’t lodged in some other thing), it’s infinite, there many be [many] other universes and, although for a time it was expanding rapidly, its expansion rate had slowed down but it has recently speeded up again. Another thought that seemed fascinating to Lisa  from around p. 375 is “Why do we happen to live in the time when the energy densities of mater, dark matter, and dark energy are comparable?” I wondered who she expected to answer her (probably rhetorical) question. Could this be a scientific hint of The LasDays?

 

https://manageknowledge.us/blog/?p=1124

Remembered Quotation

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10 Dec, 2011
bio, Heavy Lifting, Sayings, Wisdom I Have Learned

My barber reminded me yesterday of a quotation I had told him many years ago that he says he has repeated to many customers over the years when they mention problems they are facing. The quotation came from Monsignor John Sheridan, Pastor Emeritus of Our Lady of Malibu Church, in Malibu, California.

https://manageknowledge.us/blog/?p=1104

Hello Cloudberry Good-bye S3BackupSystem

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18 Nov, 2011
backup, Heavy Lifting, Tech Support, Wisdom I Have Learned

Last week I installed a trial version of Cloudberry Backup to evaluate it compared to the S3BackupSystem that I’ve been struggling to use since 2009. I’ve run it 3 times so far to backup all my important files including about 15,000 photos from my Gallery2 photo gallery, and it has worked very well. After each backup I’ve done some tweaking of files to backup, especially when I notice it’s “wanting” to backup cache files that no longer exist.

In attempting to describe my experience I just realized I never have looked at the welcome page: Inserting a copy of it here reminds me that much as I advise others to read user guides and manuals I tend to brute-force install new hardware and software. Luckily this has installed very well. Glancing at this Welcome Page I will certainly use one or more of the pre-defined backups.

Since I use the “brute-force” method of installation it took me a while to become familiar with the Storage page, and Cloudberry has other packages that help even more in reviewing what the backups have stored, but I still found this helpful:

Because my brute-force approach to package installation didn’t lead me to select the “Operation Type” option on the History page:
It took me a while to realize all the information (log) about a backup process that was available. The example I chose to show above is for “Restore” since I’ve done no restore and consequently will not be displaying any personal information. I have by the way used the storage page as well as Cloudberry Explorer to verify that files have actually been backed up to the Amazon AWS cloud that I am using.

To get back to S3BackupSystem for a moment I have tried mightily over the time I’ve had it installed on my computer, but I had one problem after another – leading me to consider myself a self-appointed beta site. Recently as a backup fails it has caused my computer to pound/throb loudly (speaker is set rather high) which can’t be pleasing the neighbors, especially when it has happened during a backup scheduled to run during the wee hours of the morning. So, it’s good-bye to the friendly folks in Estonia and hello to Cloudberry!

https://manageknowledge.us/blog/?p=1056

The End of Atoms

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10 Sep, 2011
Heavy Lifting, The Universe, Thoughts

Atoms end, cease to exist,  sometimes as radiation. Then my mind wanders to the atoms of a person changing to something like dust as the “soul” of the person does what? Radiates? Changes state?

https://manageknowledge.us/blog/?p=1006

History of the Continents

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Sep, 2011
Beginnings, Heavy Lifting, The Earth, The Universe, United States

When I recently visited the Los Angeles Natural History Museum Dinosaur Exhibit I saw an animation of the movement over time of what now are the continents. This is such an animation. WATCH IT IN FULLSCREEN

https://manageknowledge.us/blog/?p=1000

End of Month Problems

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30 Mar, 2011
bio, Heavy Lifting, United States

I have some end-of-the-month problems, namely which direction and when do I turn the knob on my watch to advance the date of the month without affecting anything else and do I continue with T-Mobile and if so which monthly plan should I pick.

Isn’t it wonderful most people don’t have such momentous decisions to make this time of year? Take Obama for example, poor man only has to decide whether to kiss Boner’s ass on his energy plan or McCain’s ass on arming the rebels in Libya.

Whoops! Further research indicates there are 31 days in March, so I don’t have to advance the date of the month on my watch until April; however T-Mobile’s prepaid plans are only good for 30 days so I continue to have a problem there.

https://manageknowledge.us/blog/?p=861

Global Warming & Population Explosion, Thoughts On

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13 Mar, 2011
Beginnings, Economy, Heavy Lifting

The liberal blogashere is quite exercised about the probable dire effects of global warming but no one seems ready to confront the “elephant” threatening life on our favorite planet: population explosion.  The few who try to discuss it postulate that birth control along with the disinclination of the affluent to have many children will fix everything. However any thinking person with an ability to calculate knows they will be too little too late. The population explosion choo-choo has left the station and not even Denzell Washington has a chance of stopping it. A few billion more will be born before birth reduction efforts and crop yield improvements will kick in to begin braking the trend. Those who survive the decimation of the poors’ children must find a way to try to get a share of the earth’s very limited resources and the way they choose may be violent and messy.

What will happen then? Who knows? The earth’s history seems to include corrections for situations that have become out of balance. What will this correction be? Only something on the order of a global nuclear war seems likely. In this case humankind steps up to correct the mess it created.

As I think about this there’s no wonder Al Gore et al have not tackled it.

https://manageknowledge.us/blog/?p=847

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