Was Abe Lincoln Wrong?

6 Replies

When I hear the  snide comments of Gingrich and Limbaugh or witness the rebirth of Tom DeLay, I begin to wonder if President Abraham Lincoln wasn’t mistaken in trying to keep the Union together. Southern Conservatism with its fanatical Baptist dominionist wingnut demographic has even perverted basic conservative values of thrift and small government. It’s expensive military fetish and its efficient marshaling of extreme nationalism have cast precious little light on the complex problems of our time, just a devisive heat.

The epoch of the “Bush II Wild-Assed Excursion in American Civilization” has lead to the present disintegration of the GOP from the Grand Old Party to the Confederate Splintered Old Party of serial filibustering demagogues.

Perhaps we should set aside a few states for the Southern Conservatives to set up a Confederacy where lassaiz faire and the Southern Baptist Convention can run unfettered in the shady green pastures of God’s marketplace. Hell, throw in Texas for good measure- except for Houston. Houston would be a independent city-state a la Hong Kong. Newt can be the new Jeff Davis of the Confederacy of Theocratic States.

Let the southern conservatives luv each other up in their own country. They can preach their sticky doctrine to a ready made choir all day long. It would be worth having a Republican Homeland seccession if it will shut the bastards up.

Return to Vegas

1 Reply

Th’ Gaussling departs for a few fun filled days in Las Vegas as a conferee. I’ll be doing my bit for God and Company speaking before a smattering of government and contractor ubermenschen through the cybermagic of PowerPoint and laser pointer. As tacky and grotesque as Las Vegas is, it certainly beats a motel on the Sam Houston Tollway as a conference destination.

A Nevada Cinder Cone

2 Replies

Whilst doing a survey of Lithium mining in North America, I blundered into a small cinder cone. It is found in the Clayton Valley of western Nevada south and west of Tonopah.

A link from the University of Nevada, Reno, gives some details on this cone as well as some interesting photographs.

Just to the south of this cinder cone is the Chemetall Foote Corporation Silver Peak brine facility. Lithium rich brines are pumped into evaporation ponds for concentration of the lithium salts. US 7390466 says that the Silver Peak brines contain 0.02 wt % Li.  The richest Li brine can be found in the Salar de Atacama brines in Chile. The Atacama brines contain from 0.15 to 0.193 wt % Li.

Research and Playfulness

3 Replies

As a kid I noticed that many cats seemed to lose their playfulness as they matured. What were once playful kittens would mature into rather less playful adult animals with irritability issues. Many humans I know seem to have “matured” away from a general disposition to playfulness in a similar way. It is a shame. Playfulness is an important expression of brain vitality.

Play can be manifested in many ways. One form is where one teases out a response from a stimulus. It can be done for simple joy, as in the case of teasing your sister. Or it can be directed to somewhat more useful and enduring outcomes as in the case of research.

As I look back on my meager list of useful developments in the laboratory, I can see that most were the result of play. I was just curious as to a particular outcome. If I had simply paid more attention to my boss and focused on getting expected results (a production activity), it is unlikely that I would have fallen into some interesting and useful insights. No doubt almost every scientist can make the same claim.

On the other hand, if I had paid more attention to my boss, perhaps I’d be  a tenured prof at a decent university or a mid-career manager at Pfizer. Hmmm.

What happens to many people when they age is the same thing that happens to cats. They settle into comfortable patterns and try to exclude surprises from their lives. Just like it takes discipline to get regular exercise, it also takes some discipline to keep imagination and playfulness a central part of your consciousness.  Go out there and try something that has been on your mind all these many months! See if it works.

Tuna Salad with Olives

5 Replies

Here is how to make a good tuna salad-

Drain thoroughly 1 large can of tuna packed in water and add two large dollops of Kraft salad dressing (or mayonaise), a spoonfull of pickle relish, and your favorite mustard (to taste).  Take a dozen olives stuffed with pimento and slice them into fifths. Carefully fold the olive slices into the blended tuna mixture.

The olives add a saltiness and a pleasing texture to the tuna salad. Enjoy as a sandwich or on a salad.

Compared to What?

2 Replies

Big confusion settled here for Th’ Gaussling. What I had always believed was a Gil Scott-Heron piece was actually Les McCann performing a Eugene McDaniels song. Here is a link to a track from Montreaux in 1969. Not the highest quality recording, but a great tune nontheless.

Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton have a version that is competent, but lacks the spark that McCann put on it. It really should be delivered as an edgy piece and the Beck/Clapton version with vocalist Doyle Bramhall lacks the anger that makes the song. It is a protest song after all.

The Taylor Hicks version is not worthy of comment.

[I fixed the Link to Les McCann- sorry!]

Chrysler Near Merger Deal with Polaris

Leave a reply

Colonville, Michigan. A spokesman for the Chrysler company announced today that the Chrysler Corporation has completed a preliminary agreement with Polaris Corporation for the acquisition of the snowmobile manufacturer. Polaris, based in Grommet, PA, has previously announced planned layoffs from its state-of-the-art throttle grip plant.

“We view this as a win-win situation” said Polaris CEO Olivier Nuggoit. The extensive dealership network is viewed as a plus for the Polaris brand.

Not everyone is enthusiastic. Chrysler Dealer Association president Robert Vinton warned that dealers in the southern states fear that their snowmobile inventories would just sit in their show rooms and crowd out the latest automobile models.

“Not to worry” Nuggoit responded, “There will be substantial factory incentives for dealers along the Gulf coast and southwest”.

Chrysler stock rose 50 % in response to the news, from $0.40 to 0.$60 per share.

Safety Communication by Walking Around

6 Replies

For people who are working in the chemical process business, there is always the question of adequate information for the safe conduct of a process. How does one fold new process safety details into an organizational structure so as to gain the greatest benefit?

One method is to simply issue memos and rely on management SOP’s for enforcement.  This kind of passive distribution of information must compete with all the other channels of information flowing into the brains of coworkers. Memos that are badly written or bursting with details are sure to be poorly absorbed. Eventually, people cannot reliably digest additional information on top of an already complex task.

The word that always comes up is “communication”. True enough, but too often communication comes in the form of training which consists of a PowerPoint recitation to a passive audience. This is not training- it is a briefing.

Communication often manifests as a memo or as a new folder on some disk drive. Again, this is a passive form of communication that does not necessarily engage the recipient.

I think that effective safety communication requires “management by walking around”. If safety information arises that is critical, then what better way than to walk around and collect disciples of safety? Mobility and strength of personality can be far more effective than even the best memo, SOP, or policy. 

Much of specialized expertise resolves to a finite number of rules and specialized awareness on top of a foundation of more generic knowledge.  Specialized expertise may be difficult to acquire, but in practice it is of finite scope. An engaging and ebullient manager can help people absorb complex information by breaking it down into a hierarchy of pieces and rules. The practice of filing information into a folder and relying on people to go out and look for it is a poor substitute for active engagement.

Land of the Peckerwoods

6 Replies

One of the strangest phenomena that I am aware of is the matter of Po-folk republicans. You know, the folks who are the working dirt poor, but somehow are abidingly aligned with deep conservatism?  These folk are part of the masses who follow the GOP propaganda organs- Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. It is beyond my comprehension as to how people who are at the bottom of Ronald Reagan’s trickle down economics cascade can support policies that clearly give preference to the wealthy and to corporations. WTF???

So, what about the Land of the Peckerwoods? Margaret and Helen put it well-

Margaret dear, I need your help sorting all this out.   Rush Limbaugh has a daily audience of 14 million morons- give or take a few rednecks – Howard excluded of course.   So are we to believe that they all want Obama to fail?   Do I have that right?  I am a little confused by this recent turn of events because weren’t these the same peckerwoods who got so upset a  few years back when a famous country western singer told about 2,000 people at a concert in London that she was ashamed that George Bush was from her home state?  

Actually I believe her exact quote was, “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”   If I am not mistaken, conservatives everywhere were enraged – albums were burned, death threats ensued.  It was treason.

 Well put, Helen dear. I have a lot to say about this topic as well, but much of it is dripping in bile.