Category Archives: Rants

Short and sweet rants on my favorite science topics

The new American Dream: uselessness, fantasy, unearned wealth, unmerited power

The new American Dream: I run a pattern business, stained glass patterns, cross stitch patterns, peyote stitch beading patterns.  I found some images of my patterns skimmed by a site called “second life”, they were valentine pictures, goodness, each sold (or brought value) of $100 of their “whatever” currency.

Of course there was no comment about where they came from, or reference to where to buy the patterns, they were just used without permission.  Then came a thought, of course. They are living the ——-

new american dream

uselessness  –  fantasy – unearned wealth – unmerited power

recycle reuse respect reduce refuse reclaim repurpose refurbush replenish react reassess reaffirm

recycle reuse respect reduce refuse reclaim repurpose refurbush replenish react reassess reaffirm

OK, you get it,  it is the universal  ‘RE‘ principle —  is REquired for a sustainable world-culture:  Here are 11 REasons to think about tomorrow with the today’s earth in mind.

refuse products packaged in non-recyclable containers

recycle everything possible, including left over food in composts, leaves, twigs and branches, dead houseplants, etc

reuse everything possible, even if it is to be used for something other than it was intended (use common sense)

respect the environment – it is the only earth we have at this time

reduce purchases and frivolous wants and trips and dumb stuff, you dont need a bigger TV or new phone if the old one works

reclaim areas of concrete, blacktop, unkempt public land for green zones,

repurpose clothes, and posessions for other uses, eg, clothes shaped into rags, shoes into highways,

refurbush what you own, rather than raze and build new

replenish areas depleted from misuse and misguided utilization with green space

react  to violations in clean air and water legislation from corporate greed

reassess your habits and determine areas where you can be more effective with purchase and waste control

reaffirm your commitment to NO single use plastic containers

I don’t understand

I don’t understand these three critical things:

1. how my children are at once my greatest pleasure and greatest pain

2. how i can have so many ideas and not enough years left to work on them

3. how i can neither love nor be loved

Free Weather Call, Cincinnati, NOT FREE, you are paying with your privacy

Free Weather Call, Cincinnati.

Last week (the -6 degree week end of december 2022) i called free weather call about 10 times, in one morning, trying to watch the temperature to determine whether i could safely let my cats outside for a little while. It was a perfectly innocent event for me to monitor the temperature hourly.  Little did i expect what happened.

Interestingly, after 10 calls i got blocked. I could not understand why for a minute, and then knew this wasn’t free weather call at all, it was an advertising money making deal… and each time i called the free weather call must receive a sum of money from each advertiser and a “fail safe” number of clicks from each caller was part of their algorithm.  screw them.

I will not click to listen to viagra being advertised….  or any other of their advertisements, and it is a fake news item that they call it free weather call…. ha ha…. dont you just love how people scam us for our “minds” “money” “personal data”  free weather call is not free, they are monitoring you….  they must subscribe to the trumpian idea that “if i say it enough, it becomes real, whether it is real or not”

MY OPINION

Extremeism does not exist in all religion or all governing practices (it does certainly exist in a few)

Extreemists do exist in religions and governing practices (they certainly exist in all)

Pinterest trending: I hope not!

If this picture is any indication of what is trending in the US or anywhere in the world, then I believe the world is headed for a new low in “tattoo designs” “fingernail styles” “excessive ring wearing” ??? what is this?  The tattoos are neither artistic nor particularly well done, and it looks like they are unimportant since they are covered with bracelets,  the fingernail are honed to a point which means that someone is going to get hurt (hopefully not a child) and it shows how unlikely this person (trending) is going to be doing anything to maintain her upkeep, the bracelets are taken from the pull chain in the bathroom light,  and the pose is with feet up on the sofa…. which has its own connotations.  Sorry.  This is not style. There is nothing beautiful, intellectual, graceful or thoughtful about the “trending on pinterest”.  It speaks only to heubris and hedonism.  How sad.

Consistent approach to saving images used for image and signal processing in microscopy?

I wish I had known how much work I created for myself by using images from different programs, different ppi, different RGB, CMYK, grayscale, and dimensions.  A little standardization in my approach would have made getting the data much easier. A word to the “wise”.

My images were from so many sources, so many were pixelated, low contrast, warped, screenshots from publications, and general inconsistent in quality, and made by different microscopes, and different microscopic techniques.  A polyglot for sure.

Logitec

Wow, NASA can get signals and guide instruments from a billion miles away, but my Logitec wireless mouse can’t survive 4 months sending signals for 10 inches.

So here is my “real” question

In my last few years, where should I focus my efforts? ?? On the ultimate fate of humanity, the planet, the cosmos ???

Should I continue working on surfactant protein D???
Should I continue to make patterns for stained glass???
Should I help people make memories with trinkets???
Should I work on my yard till every weed is gone and leaf is in place???
Should I focus on my house (like patching what needs to be patched, or upgrading etc…)???

What will have the greatest impact?

I am not at all concerned what my kids get in inheritance, I think getting money from parents does them absolutely NO GOOD whatsoever.

The things that interest me “mentally” are helping to figure out the structural model of SP-D because it gratifies my sense of feeling “smart”… which is stupid…

I get real pleasure out of making patterns for contemporary glass crafters from old and wonderful architectural stained glass, so they can replicate, at lest in part, old designs for their own homes and inspirational places. One of my “road to damascas” desires in terms of trying to give this back to todays culture.

I get pleasure from making mosaic planters and pots out of trash (how that happened I have no clue)

I get NO pleasure from customizing patterns of pets and humans but that is actually where PDQpatterns makes most of its $$,

I get pleasure from keeping my yard, but not keeping it to a painfully manicured state, just better than the neighbors, LOLOL, no really, I try to make it as annoyance-free to my visual brain as possible, and that is hard enough work.

I feel obliged to keep my the yard at my daughter’s residence (really its my yard) as tidy as possible given how few hours a week I am there, and i do this for the neighbors…

OR IS IT complete hubris to think that what I do matters at all, in the grand scheme of the cosmos. “who gives a flying rats behind what one does with one’s last 15 years” and “that is perhaps the only acceptable answer”

And whatever I do (as I realized back when Sadam Hussain lit his oil wells on fire during the Gulf War? of which I was reminded by Putin setting his gas reserves on fire”..(both idiots) I can’t undo those, or any, irresponsible acts, by them, or by me, or by anyone.

I could strive to do the best for the environment, humanity, and give everything until I die and it would make no significant difference.

Does this give me license to “do what i want”????

THE KEY PHRASE FROM MY BF… “make a cosmic dent”