I'm so sick of reading studies that can't solve anything because their focus is too narrow. Case in point:
LONDON (Reuters) -
Manners aside, getting cows to burp less can help reduce global warming.
Using modern plant-breeding methods to find new diets for cows that make them belch less is a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, scientists said on Monday.
The key is developing new varieties of food that are easier for cattle to digest and also provide a proper balance of fiber, protein and sugar, said Michael Abberton, a scientist at the UK-based Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research.
This could open up plant-based solutions as alternatives to reducing stock as farmers look for ways to cut methane emissions amid warming climates, he told a briefing on farming and climate change at London's Science Media Centre.
He noted the average dairy cow belches out about 100 to 200 liters of methane each day, making diet changes a key potential factor in reducing this greenhouse gas.
Agriculture is responsible for about seven percent of UK greenhouse gas emissions and a large proportion of two of the most potent gases with 37 percent of methane and 67 percent of nitrous oxide.
Greenhouses gases are widely blamed for causing global warming. Scientists say average temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees Celsius by the end of the century, causing droughts, floods and violent storms.
Abberton said introducing easier-to-digest legumes that tend to reduce methane emissions is an example of an approach scientists are beginning to explore. Legumes such as clover and alfalfa are commonly used for animal fodder.
It also requires farmers to balance cows' legume intake with other food and to develop different species of grass that are also more digestible, he added. "What I'm saying is there are approaches within plant breeding that can lead to reduced emissions," he said.
Talk about catastrophizing a situation! This is the agricultural equivalent of the Chicken Little story. Only here, belching cows are the nut that fell on Chicken little's head and made him think the sky was falling.
How many cows are there in the UK? Multiply that times 100-200 liters and you have...nothing compared to the amount of methane produced by swampland and ponds.
When I visit the pond near my Dad's house I've seen him collect a liter of methane in a global hot minute by disturbing the plant life underneath and collecting the bubbles that rise up in the water. It's methane all right. You can light it and it burns.
Here's how you get a grant: identify a problem that scares everyone poopless (global warming) and propose a way to fix that specific problem, no matter how impractical or expensive.
If cows could read this, they would all be mad.
Monday, July 9, 2007
TD F-in F!
It's the Tour De Friggin' France!
I know the world doesn't give a toss about pro cycling. But, you can't kill a blog for trying...
This year's tour has a lot of interesting story lines. One of the favorites, Alexandre Vinokourov (Vino), was dicked out of competing last year because half of his team tested positive for performance enhancing substances. Because a team has a minimum number of riders with which it must start the race, Vino was sent packing despite being in top form. For this reason alone I'm pulling for him. After this scandal many of the team sponsors checked out and Vino used his resourcefulness to lobby for more sponsorship. The government of Khazakstan partly sponsors his team (Astana). That's somewhat strange for a sport that is largely dominated by western Europeans. Aslo, his team has drawn the attention of Borat, who as we know, hails from Khazakstan. We won't mention his sister.
This year, my heart lies with the American Levi Leipheimer. Part of me is pulling for him because he's a "home town" boy in a European sport. But, he's unlike the last two American champions (Lance and Floyd) because; a) he's largely underrated and b) he's relatively modest. I think because he lacks flash, no one has ever really given him a chance to win. This year, his team (American based Discovery Channel) signed him but with the intention of supporting the team's star, Ivan Basso. Whelp, as fate would have it, Ivan is a fraudulent blood doper and will be forced to watch this year's tour on Time Warner cable.
Poor guy... *heavy sarcasm*
So, Levi has taken his spot (by default) as Discovery's team hopeful to win the tour. Levi and his wife also run a charitable organization for abandoned animals which is a welcome change to Floyd Landis, who runs his mouth.
Levi wants to ride himself into form late into this tour. He's a great time trialist (can ride well in the two stages where riders are timed by themselves against the clock) and he also excels when the road heads upwards. I'm hoping he makes a good showing when the tour enters the mountains in about a week or so.
You can check in at http://www.letour.fr/ It's a great event because it runs almost every day for the next three weeks.
No one is giving Levi a chance to even make the podium. I always love an underdog.
I know the world doesn't give a toss about pro cycling. But, you can't kill a blog for trying...
This year's tour has a lot of interesting story lines. One of the favorites, Alexandre Vinokourov (Vino), was dicked out of competing last year because half of his team tested positive for performance enhancing substances. Because a team has a minimum number of riders with which it must start the race, Vino was sent packing despite being in top form. For this reason alone I'm pulling for him. After this scandal many of the team sponsors checked out and Vino used his resourcefulness to lobby for more sponsorship. The government of Khazakstan partly sponsors his team (Astana). That's somewhat strange for a sport that is largely dominated by western Europeans. Aslo, his team has drawn the attention of Borat, who as we know, hails from Khazakstan. We won't mention his sister.
This year, my heart lies with the American Levi Leipheimer. Part of me is pulling for him because he's a "home town" boy in a European sport. But, he's unlike the last two American champions (Lance and Floyd) because; a) he's largely underrated and b) he's relatively modest. I think because he lacks flash, no one has ever really given him a chance to win. This year, his team (American based Discovery Channel) signed him but with the intention of supporting the team's star, Ivan Basso. Whelp, as fate would have it, Ivan is a fraudulent blood doper and will be forced to watch this year's tour on Time Warner cable.
Poor guy... *heavy sarcasm*
So, Levi has taken his spot (by default) as Discovery's team hopeful to win the tour. Levi and his wife also run a charitable organization for abandoned animals which is a welcome change to Floyd Landis, who runs his mouth.
Levi wants to ride himself into form late into this tour. He's a great time trialist (can ride well in the two stages where riders are timed by themselves against the clock) and he also excels when the road heads upwards. I'm hoping he makes a good showing when the tour enters the mountains in about a week or so.
You can check in at http://www.letour.fr/ It's a great event because it runs almost every day for the next three weeks.
No one is giving Levi a chance to even make the podium. I always love an underdog.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
State Road Race
Course profile for today's Ohio State Road Championships:
Oy! Who says Ohio doesn't have hills.
4 laps of this in the peak heat of the day. Sometimes it pays to be a bone monster.
Bringin' lots of bananas in my cooler!
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Where did I go?
Check this out:
NEWS
IBM retains Kroll Inc. to provide credit monitoring service
IBM is offering a comprehensive identify theft protection service to a specific group of current and former IBM employees whose personal information was included on data tapes inadvertently lost while being transported by a vendor. This service, called ID TheftSmart™, will be provided by Kroll Inc. IBM will provide the service for a full year at no cost to the participant. Those eligible are being notified by mail.
I got a letter at my Dad's house informing me of this. That's where I was living in the summers of 1989, 1990 and 1991. I was a summer co-op working in the surface science department at IBM Endicott, NY. I was staring at the monitor of an electron microscope all day to determine different modes of failure of tiny microcircuits. It was like living in a tiny miniature world of computer circuit lines. Kinda like Tron.
Trust me, the only thing in my life that hasn't changed since then is maybe my height and my social security number. But, I'll take advantage of another corporate goof-up and parlay it into a year of free identity theft protection. Because among a gazzilion other things, identity theft is something that scares me.
And therein lies the irony: Someone might want to steal my identity when I barely want it for myself? Now that would be rich. LOL!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
June 2024
I'll be 54 1/2. If there's still such thing as a pension, that's when I'm gonna retire. Maybe sooner. I'm almost half way there, in terms of years of service.
My Dad retired at 51. He got it right. Granted, he uses the time to do things like go to garage sales and buy things like partially operational meat grinders. Why? Because it's made of cast aluminum of course! Cast aluminum is beautiful. He's got the right idea because he does whatever he wants and nobody is his boss. That freedom is worth a lot. Most of us start life with a great deal of freedom and health, but no authority. It would be nice idea to enjoy some of the tail end of life with freedom, health and authority all intact.
What's spawning these thoughts? Tonight, I went to a viewing of a co-worker. He died the year after he retired. Luckily, he enjoyed those working years and (in my opinion) payed attention to what was most important in life.
And that ain't work.
Either I'm more perceptive this year, or someone's trying to send me a message. I work closely with some people who are obsessed with their careers. I can't say if these people are my bosses or not, because if they read this blog they might fire me. They carry around their Blackberry, they hand out their cell phone number encouraging that we call 24/7 if needed. They work long long hours. They lose their identity as their work becomes it. I often attend meetings with people who are introduced as someone who "flunked retirement". That is, they retired after working some forty odd years, then decided they didn't like it and came back to work full time.
Drones!
I'm not espousing being a lazy ass. There's enough of those. It's rewarding to be a professional and do a good job. I am saying I can't understand what makes workaholics tick. I can try to empathize. It's enticing to become wrapped up in it all. At work, you might have people in your ear telling you all sorts of encouraging stuff; "We need you, Mike", "You're doing a good job, Mike"..."Blah blah blah good stuff about Mike, Mike". People you work with have to say stuff like this because sans paycheck, they realize it is your only reward. They have to make you feel needed.
BUT, there's a difference between being "needed" and being "convenient". In the workplace, you are almost always more the latter than the former. You can be replaced at the drop of a hat. This is also true for relationships outside of the workplace. But, I'll try to stay focused today.
All I can say is I'm getting a friggin' "A" in retirement when it's my turn. I like my line of work, but I can certainly...ya know...think of better things I'd do if I had the choice?
Like..whatever I want to do in 2024. Even if I'm buying parts of meat grinders.
Now let's pray I don't get hit by a truck until then.
My Dad retired at 51. He got it right. Granted, he uses the time to do things like go to garage sales and buy things like partially operational meat grinders. Why? Because it's made of cast aluminum of course! Cast aluminum is beautiful. He's got the right idea because he does whatever he wants and nobody is his boss. That freedom is worth a lot. Most of us start life with a great deal of freedom and health, but no authority. It would be nice idea to enjoy some of the tail end of life with freedom, health and authority all intact.
What's spawning these thoughts? Tonight, I went to a viewing of a co-worker. He died the year after he retired. Luckily, he enjoyed those working years and (in my opinion) payed attention to what was most important in life.
And that ain't work.
Either I'm more perceptive this year, or someone's trying to send me a message. I work closely with some people who are obsessed with their careers. I can't say if these people are my bosses or not, because if they read this blog they might fire me. They carry around their Blackberry, they hand out their cell phone number encouraging that we call 24/7 if needed. They work long long hours. They lose their identity as their work becomes it. I often attend meetings with people who are introduced as someone who "flunked retirement". That is, they retired after working some forty odd years, then decided they didn't like it and came back to work full time.
Drones!
I'm not espousing being a lazy ass. There's enough of those. It's rewarding to be a professional and do a good job. I am saying I can't understand what makes workaholics tick. I can try to empathize. It's enticing to become wrapped up in it all. At work, you might have people in your ear telling you all sorts of encouraging stuff; "We need you, Mike", "You're doing a good job, Mike"..."Blah blah blah good stuff about Mike, Mike". People you work with have to say stuff like this because sans paycheck, they realize it is your only reward. They have to make you feel needed.
BUT, there's a difference between being "needed" and being "convenient". In the workplace, you are almost always more the latter than the former. You can be replaced at the drop of a hat. This is also true for relationships outside of the workplace. But, I'll try to stay focused today.
All I can say is I'm getting a friggin' "A" in retirement when it's my turn. I like my line of work, but I can certainly...ya know...think of better things I'd do if I had the choice?
Like..whatever I want to do in 2024. Even if I'm buying parts of meat grinders.
Now let's pray I don't get hit by a truck until then.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Fitness walkers
Why do these folks do that silly arm swinging motion? It can't burn that many extra calories. It looks very silly and sort of annoying. Kinda like I feel embarrased for them?
Kudos for getting off the couch and taking care of yourselves. But please let your arms hang and swing normally. You look like C3PO and you ain't impressing anybody.
Not to mention, you renew my fear that robot overlords might take over the world someday.
Kudos for getting off the couch and taking care of yourselves. But please let your arms hang and swing normally. You look like C3PO and you ain't impressing anybody.
Not to mention, you renew my fear that robot overlords might take over the world someday.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
HIPAA-crytes
I've been doing a little work at a "senior living community" for about 4 years. Until recently, I did a sort of "show and tell" science show for those who were old enough to not completely care for themselves, but need mental stimulation. I was discontinued in favor of "sing-a-long" ostensibly because my jokes were too smutty or because the nun running the show is too busy to find my phone number. That's okay, she is probably busy studying the Ten Commandments of Driving. Now I just visit a handful of people unofficially. I should quit being on the roster and pick up my last paycheck...but I don't get paid. So that would be a rather strange way of evening the score with the nun lady. Maybe I'll just bash into her car in the parking lot. But she probably took a vow of poverty and doesn't have a car. Damn.
I have to blog about this stuff because it creates so many interesting stories of frustration and gratification. I'm not as much trying to advertise what a great guy I am. That is well established. But, I also have really bad gas sometimes so it all evens out.
Here's an interesting story about HIPAA privacy laws and a guy named Wally.
I've been visiting Wally for about four years. He and I are buds. Despite the age difference, we have a tremendous amount in common. We both lived in Buffalo (Wally for 35 years) and graduated from the University of Buffalo (Wally still wears his ring), we're both scientists (Wally a materials scientist for IBM, Xerox and NCR) and we both lived in the same neighborhood of Kettering about two blocks from each other.
But, we never met each other until I met him at the assisted living center. He was living there while rehabilitating from a broken hip. Like many, he never completely made it and he had to sell his house and stay at the assisted living joint. As you might expect, he was really feeling poopy in the brain about having to give up his house. So, I went over to his house and took a digital photo of it, printed it and framed it for him. I think this won him over. Before this he might have thought I was one of Jehova's Witnesses or trying to to sell him insurance.
Wally has had an exciting life. He was a gunner in B-17's during World War 2. Then he went to college at U.B. and later worked for a long time in the photographic film and printing industry. He has 18 friggin' patents to his name.
Blah blah blah...we've always hit it off and I look forward to seeing him every time I go.
Fast forward to about two weeks ago. Wally acted a little different. He kept telling me he was leaving because his room was costing him too much. I must admit, I take some of the things I hear from these folks with a grain of salt. Sometimes we're dealing with dimensia. Sometimes people have an idea of what they want to do but the family pulls all the strings and has intentions to the contrary. So, when I left I told him I'd see him in about 2 weeks and shook his hand. Wally takes my hand, hugs it and tells me he loves me. This took me off guard a bit and so being a relatively insecure guy, I created a joke about it and told him I loved him too...but not in a funny way.
I shouldn't have doubted Wally. I took a trip to see people this week. Wally's not in his room. His name's not on the door. I asked at the desk where he was and if in fact he...was. They told me he moved and that's all they could tell me, because of HIPAA.
F*&$in' HIPAA!
But being the super-sleuth that I am, I asked the lady who changes the garbage where Wally went. Always ask the garbage lady. She knows all. She says he moved to Xenia. Cool, I have a lead. So, then I called another person at the assisted living center and asked the leading question "Which nursing home in Xenia did Wally move to?". She told me. I'm so proud of myself. I should work for the CIA. I now have the tactical wherewithall to circumvent HIPAA laws infiltrate high security areas like nursing homes. The lady also told me that when I visit to make sure I make it clear I'm not representing their organization. I thought that was nice of her. She must be friends with the nun lady.
So, I took a trip to see Wally yesterday at his new digs in Xenia. He shit his pants when he saw me. Well...not literally, which is a possibility at his age. But, I asked him; "You didn't think I'd come see you here, did ya?". He said "No, I knew you'd come, just not this soon".
Cool stuff.
I could have done without the HIPAA runaround though.
I have to blog about this stuff because it creates so many interesting stories of frustration and gratification. I'm not as much trying to advertise what a great guy I am. That is well established. But, I also have really bad gas sometimes so it all evens out.
Here's an interesting story about HIPAA privacy laws and a guy named Wally.
I've been visiting Wally for about four years. He and I are buds. Despite the age difference, we have a tremendous amount in common. We both lived in Buffalo (Wally for 35 years) and graduated from the University of Buffalo (Wally still wears his ring), we're both scientists (Wally a materials scientist for IBM, Xerox and NCR) and we both lived in the same neighborhood of Kettering about two blocks from each other.
But, we never met each other until I met him at the assisted living center. He was living there while rehabilitating from a broken hip. Like many, he never completely made it and he had to sell his house and stay at the assisted living joint. As you might expect, he was really feeling poopy in the brain about having to give up his house. So, I went over to his house and took a digital photo of it, printed it and framed it for him. I think this won him over. Before this he might have thought I was one of Jehova's Witnesses or trying to to sell him insurance.
Wally has had an exciting life. He was a gunner in B-17's during World War 2. Then he went to college at U.B. and later worked for a long time in the photographic film and printing industry. He has 18 friggin' patents to his name.
Blah blah blah...we've always hit it off and I look forward to seeing him every time I go.
Fast forward to about two weeks ago. Wally acted a little different. He kept telling me he was leaving because his room was costing him too much. I must admit, I take some of the things I hear from these folks with a grain of salt. Sometimes we're dealing with dimensia. Sometimes people have an idea of what they want to do but the family pulls all the strings and has intentions to the contrary. So, when I left I told him I'd see him in about 2 weeks and shook his hand. Wally takes my hand, hugs it and tells me he loves me. This took me off guard a bit and so being a relatively insecure guy, I created a joke about it and told him I loved him too...but not in a funny way.
I shouldn't have doubted Wally. I took a trip to see people this week. Wally's not in his room. His name's not on the door. I asked at the desk where he was and if in fact he...was. They told me he moved and that's all they could tell me, because of HIPAA.
F*&$in' HIPAA!
But being the super-sleuth that I am, I asked the lady who changes the garbage where Wally went. Always ask the garbage lady. She knows all. She says he moved to Xenia. Cool, I have a lead. So, then I called another person at the assisted living center and asked the leading question "Which nursing home in Xenia did Wally move to?". She told me. I'm so proud of myself. I should work for the CIA. I now have the tactical wherewithall to circumvent HIPAA laws infiltrate high security areas like nursing homes. The lady also told me that when I visit to make sure I make it clear I'm not representing their organization. I thought that was nice of her. She must be friends with the nun lady.
So, I took a trip to see Wally yesterday at his new digs in Xenia. He shit his pants when he saw me. Well...not literally, which is a possibility at his age. But, I asked him; "You didn't think I'd come see you here, did ya?". He said "No, I knew you'd come, just not this soon".
Cool stuff.
I could have done without the HIPAA runaround though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
