ENLARGE FOR BEST VIEWING
I miss Yellowdog Granny.
the Ol'Buzzard
DID I RUN AND AM I TIRED?
We are all
time travelers. We are on a never
pausing spaceship traveling into the future.
Einstein postulated that if light speed is constant then time is not. If time is not a fixed standard, then it will vary by the speed of one object moving away from another.
RELATIVITY
An astronaut leaves Earth traveling at 8/10 the speed of light. After 30 years on the spaceship, 50 years will have passed on Earth.
People belonging to the know-nothing party, which is the base of the Republican Party, will say that Relativity, like Evolution, is just a theory – somehow they will weave god into it.
But time travel is a
standard calculation that allows GPS to operate and allows us to land a space
probe or ship with precise accuracy on another planet or moon.
Time is
bendable and can be affected by gravity, opening the possibility of wormholes,
but that is another formulation.
To my way of
thinking, time is truly relative to the individual. When I was eight years old the time between
one Christmas and the next was an eternity.
Now in my eighties, it seems I wake up and another month has
passed.
Then perhaps
this is all just a simulation. Zeus's son is
playing a computer game and we are just avatars.
the Ol'Buzzard
SNOWS THEN
AND NOW
Old men remember. Over a half century ago when I was a young man in Maine, you could not go into the woods in the winter without snowshoes. Not the puney little aluminum snow shoes of today. You needed a set of trail shoes or trappers – if you were just over 100 pounds you could probably get by with bearpaws.
If you stepped off your snowshoes you would sink
to your crotch or deeper. We don’t have
snow like that today.
The snow storms
don’t come as often and are not as severe, then are followed by a warmup.
That said,
today we have an old-time storm coming into Maine. The snow just started here
in western Maine and is forecast to last all day, dropping 10 to 16 inches.
I am located just below and east of the town of Rangeley. In the 10-16 inch area.
On the southern coast, the snow will turn to sleet and then freezing rain. Undoubtedly causing power outages.
So, this will be a goodun; but I remember when this would have just been considered a standard storm.
the Ol’Buzzard
I am late posting about winter gloves, but Trump sucked the oxygen out of Blogging last year.
I do not advertise for any company, but when I find something that serves me well I occasionally post it.
I have cold weather experience and have spent years in the Arctic. That is years of having cold hands.
Two years ago I bought KOMBI Men's Sanctum Glove. There is a soft lining with a wrist cuff and a snow cuff to seal out snow. The glove also has a waterproof inner glove and a water-resistant palm. A six-inch cord from the cuff ends with a wristband, so I can take off the gloves and hang loose from my wrist.
In 2007 the
Democrat Party dared to run a black man for President.
Seeing the
opportunity to coalesce the racist base of the Republican Party into action, the Koch Brothers financed a Tea Party movement.
They hired
organizers to reach out to their more gullible constituents. They paid for buses
to transport protestors to targeted areas and furnished them with signs, placards, and support.
Without realizing it, the Koch brothers were training the inmates to take over the asylum.
People who had never been the center of attention suddenly had a chance to be filmed by major news networks. Not the brightest bulbs in the Republican light show, these people showed up with tea bags hanging from their hats, don’t tread on me flags, dressed as Uncle Sam, etc. They screamed and yelled and received their fifteen minutes of fame. But they also found they had a movement they could belong to. And by remaining organized they had a controlling power over the Republican Party.
More and
more of the lunatic fringe joined the movement.
The only thing lacking was a leader.
Then came
Donald Trump; not a particularly bright person, but as P.T. Barnum said, you
only have to be smarter than the rubes you are conning.
The circle
was complete. The Tea Party became the
MAGA cult.
After
attempting a coupe, there was a chance to eliminate MAGA, but Republicans, still
afraid of the MAGA base, refused to impeach Trump and remove him from
office.
But not just
the Republicans: the milk toast Attorney General Merrick Garland had the
chance, but delayed holding Trump accountable for the insurrection of January 6
for two years.
So now we live in a MAGA republic, whether we like it or not, and Trump’s desire to delete the Department of Education pretty much says it all.
the Ol’Buzzard