Ol' Country Boy

2011-12-27T08:08:00.002-06:00

This was the greatest Christmas ever. Unlike last Christmas, the Old Country Girl was out of the hospital and went nuts putting up enough decorations to be a landing beacon. All the kids and grand kids and near future step grand kids came over (over the Eve and Day) and all were happy and grateful for what they received. Their laughter and happiness was good for my soul. At least for my children and grand children and new grandchildren, all are smart, happy, and doing well. They will be part of the solution for this country, not part of the problem.

I hope it doesn't snow, because I will be spending the next week putting away all those decorations! Of course, when you are in your 70's, anything you survive is a plus.

Winter Solstice

2011-12-15T18:34:00.002-06:00

The Old Country Girs is going all out this year. She even has wreaths for the milk cans. She and the rest of us missed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years because she was in hospital with an antibiotic IV drip 24/7. We weren't sure she would ever get out, but she hardheaded enough to do it. As a warning to anyone who peruses this blog, Be vary careful about putting metal appliances into your body. If you have had lypmhs removed, discuss the situation with an infectious disease doctor, along with your orthopedic surgon.

Anyway, we won't be painting ourselves blue and doing our winter solstice dance this year, because we can't get around very well anymore and I don't want the neighbors to die laughing.

Fall on the Ranch

2011-10-31T18:42:00.004-05:00

It' Halloween time and the Mexican hay wagon has been over-decorated by the Old Country Girl.

The Trees are starting to turn and the leaves are floating to the ground like a snow storm with giant flakes. The ground is carpeted with leaves.

Wartime Nuclear Radiation Wrap Up Part 4

2011-10-30T08:58:00.002-05:00

Parts 1, 2, and 3 are just information the average person should know and simple precautions to take in the event of a nuclear terrorist incident that involves normal fall-out. Becase, in the event of a mass evacuation, many will probably be stranded on crowded and blocked exit highways, these were instructions for protecting yourself in place. It may be safer to hunker down in a place you know, like your home or lake cabin.

These instructions generally do not apply to radiation incidents caused by reactor leaks and "dirty" bombs. The half-life of that radiation is considerably longer than that of fall-out. Before anythng happens, as part of your disaster preparadness, it would be a good idea to look up your local radiation emergency center personnel and find out how to get information from them during an emergency.

Wartime Nuclear Radiation (Part 3) Calculating Your Exposure

2011-10-14T03:28:00.003-05:00

The wartime military nuclear occupation types use a rule of thumb for calculating personnel radiation exposure called the FIT forever rule. This rule essentially states:

The total radiation exposure, if you stayed in the radiation area forever equals five times the intensity of the radiation at the time of entering the radiation area times the time since the nuclear detonation.

I have a quibble with this with the definition of time since detonation. In reality, all that stuff that goes up (people, bridges, grocery stores, etc) takes a while to come back down. In fact, a significant level of injure and death is caused by people staring up at the mushroom crowd, only to be hit be rocks, cars, and other hard objects. Think Tornados. We will talk about this in Part 4. The definition of time you should use is H+1 or H+2, depending on the size of the bomb. The real definition will be based on the disaster broadcasters that will give you the time of maximum radiation in your area. That would be H-max. If you dont have H-max then use one of the other Hs.

The FIT forever calculation is used as follows:

Given example -- H occurs at 9:00 am 0n 9/11/12.

Hmax occurs at 10:30am on 9/11/12

The intensity at Hmax is about 3000 rads/hour

If you can stay under good cover, essentially radiati0n free until

T = 5:30pm 9/11/12

After 7 hours, or at 5:30, the radiation level will be about 300Rads/hour

You would recieve: 5 x 300 Rads/hour x 7 Hours

or 10,500 Rads if you stayed forever, enough to bring you to room temperature.

If you re-entered the shielded area at 12:30 am on 9/12/12,

and stayed forever, you would avoid 5 x 30 Rads/hour x 14 hours or 2,100 Rads

To continue, if you had stayed shielded until 6:30 on 9/12/12, you would accumulate a radiation dose of 5 x 3 Rads/hour x 21 hours or 315 Rads for the rest of your life. This is quite survivable, assuming you limit radiation input later in your life. As further example: If you stayed under cover for a day and a half, you would have a lifetime exposure in that area of less than 5 Rads, which brings you into the peace time radiation worker exposure ranges. Calculate it yourself. If you can, you pass.

Wartime Nuclear Survival (Part 2) Fallout radiation

2011-10-07T20:45:00.002-05:00

In Part 1, covered the two levels of radiation safety - the current industrial/medical/peacetime levels and the wartime level (after the bomb). Don't let any radiation guru try to con you into following the peacetime numbers. If the balloon goes up or an islamist blows up Manhatten, the radiation levels will be off the peacetime scales. We aren't talking about a nuclear generating station leak, we are talking about the radiactive remains of buildings, people, cars, dogs, grass, dirt etc. blowing in the wind. I can guarantee you that nothing blowing in the wind is going to be less than 2mr in any one hour.

The trick is to get yourself in the less than 25R group at best or 100R group at the worst. Since all care units will be massively overloaded, you don't want a broken arm, the sniffles, or radiation sickness much more than the barf stage. There won't be anybody there to take care of you. At this point, I don't think you will be vary concerned with cancer or two-headed babies. Your one aim in life is to survive. And survive you can!

Fallout radiation is not quite like the industrial or powerplant radiation you are "used" to. Fallout radiation IS made up of vaporized people, dogs, cats, cars, buildings, trees, lakes sidewalks, and schools. The average tenth-life for fallout is about 7 hours. In plain English, it will DECADE every seven hours after the radiation peak. e.g. If the radiation has peaked by midnight, by 7:00am it is one tenth what it was. By 2:00pm it will be 1/100th what it was at midnight. By 9:00 that night it will be 1/1000 what it was at midnight. Further, if the radiation was 1000R at midnight, it will be about 1R at nine the following evening. You can last a lot longer at 1R than at 1000R. This is where TIME, DISTANCE AND SHIELDING come in. Can you dig a hole six feet deep. Can you cover it with a board and lay in it for one or two days? You can if you want to live. It isn't that hard.

Even if you can't dig a hole, you can at least get to the center most point of your house.That should be at least 12' - 16' beneath the roof and probably a minimum of 10' from any outside wall. Tape up all your windows and doors and place your most massive flueniture between yourself and the outside. One radiation safety trick is to use distance to reduce the radiation intensity. The radiation intensity varies inversely with the square of the distande from the source. That means if you can move 10 feet from a radiation wall or ceiling, you can reduce the intensity by 100. If I had a wooden floor house, I would cut a hole in the center and start digging. You can always repair the hole in the floor (unless you are dead).

Continued

Wartime Nuclear Survival (Part 1) Basics

2011-10-07T20:14:00.004-05:00

Nuclear Basics

Radiation safety and personal survival depend on three concepts:

1. Time -- The length of time you are exposed to the radiation

2. Distance -- How far you can get from the radiation source

3. Shielding -- any solid object you can put between you and the source of radiation.

Because I am an old phart and do not see the use of the new units (SI) used to describe radiation when they are harder to remember and don't add anything to your safety, I will use the unit Radiation Absorbed Dose (RAD). All those other sieverts, greys, etc were established to entice all the countries of the "civilized" world to participate in the new SI system, designed to restrain trade from the US.

The international entities and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have established radiation exposure limits for PEACETIME radiation exposure. They are based on the genetic pool background exposure concentrated and divided amoung radiation workers. Those limits are (but not limited to):

2mr in any one hour

100 mr in any one week

1250 mr in any one quarter

5000 mr (5R) per year

total of 5R for each year over the age of 18

Because this was once based on the gene pool, womyn and minors were restricted to 1/10 of the allowed dose. However, since womyn's lib, they takes the same chance as the rest of us.

NOW FORGET ALL THAT STUFF -- THIS IS WAR. OR SOME

HAS DECIDED TO DO IN THE GREAT SATAN

Here is what you gotta know:

25R An experienced blood chemist can begin to detect changes in blood.

100R Some folks are going to start to get sick.

200R Half of those exposed will get sick.

400R Everyone gets sick, half die.

600R Almost every one dies.

1000R Believe it or not, there are a small number still around.

Don't count on any of them being you.

What are things really worth?

2011-10-07T19:47:00.004-05:00

Fungible: A good or asset that is interchangeable with other goods or assets of the same class, generally for trade or commerce purposes.

Common fungible commodities on the world market are oil, gold, wheat, and corn. Outside the fact that The United States produces about half its petroleum internally, the US produces and exports the other commodities on a worldwide basis. For years, we have watched our dollar be manipulated by world and US traders; watched its value diminish on the world markets. The interesting thing about these four commodities is that you can't eat gold or oil, and the US is the largest producer in the world of wheat and corn, and rice, and soybeans, and ad infinitum.

In 1996, the following commodity prices approximately prevailed in the world markets: oil $40/bbl

gold $400/toz

wheat $3/bushel

corn $4/bushel

Using 1996 as a base year:

1bbl oil = 1/10 toz gold = 10 bu corn = 12 bu wheat.

In late may of 2011, oil was at $99/bbl. Gold is as high as $1600/toz, wheat was $5.25/ bushel,a nd corn was &7.60/bushel - and the dollar was down 20% for the year.

I propose we all write our congress critters (it is no use talking to our worthless president) and that congress enact a foreign exchange act that demands that transactions in all fungible commodities be accomplished using fungible commodities, with the trade values being set by a formula similar to above, but determined by the FTC or Department of State.

Those oil extorting countries are going to get mighty hungry trying to eat their oil and hoarded gold. Since the PRC is also an energy importer and food exporter, they might like to jump on the bandwagon with us.

Football Season

2011-09-30T11:24:00.003-05:00

I don't really watch or cheer much for our local football teams, even though my Ol' Country Descendents went to all three of them. I went to an engineering school in Western Pennsylvania that had an almost club level football team where the members played well, and often played for fun. After being inculcated with the difficulties of learning engineering (of any kind) I have come to the conclusion that any school that has an NCAA IA football team, although they can produce some good shirt-sleeve engineers, they can't really produce really good engineers.

So here is the best football cheer my school produced (that is clean):

E to the x dydx
E to the y dy
Cosine, secant, tangent, sine
3.14159
Square root, cube root, log of e
Watercooled slipstick
C I T

Failures MTBF and MTTF

2011-09-27T19:45:00.002-05:00

The OCB has had a tough week so far. The OCG's koi fish pond pump impeller failed. The log splitter shreaded a Lovejoy spider. Our M-60 tank proof front gate has taken one too many hits by turnarounds. It was also attacked by a burglar that unsuccessfully tried to disconnect the mechanism. My smallest chainsaw gave up the ghost after 14 years after I tried a new batch of saw gas with a systhetic oil. That batch of gas also killed my brand new saw and I had to replace the carburator.

It is all Bush' s fault. It's all Obama's fault. Or, if the truth were known, It's all my own fault.

The pump failure was for a Savio solids pump that was supposed to stand up to some pond solids. I don't know if this includes the odd cottonmouth water moccasin and a few young Koi. Still the Savio company does not advertise repair parts and a local pond maintainer is going to try to get a new impeller. Easy to replace - unscrew the old one and screw on the new on.

The log splitter failure was on a very reliable OLD Montgomery Ward splitter. The cylinder hold downs kept failing and letting the hydraulic cylinder push back or to the side. This engineering genius got tired of this and put a block of 2" x 4' behind the cylinder. When the hold downs failed, the cylinder pushed the hydraulic pump shaft out of alignment and the Lovejoy coupling spectacularly failed. Of course, I found out about this when the OCG, who was splitting wood, told me she didn't think the splitter was working.

The chain saw had been kept running by squrting a little oil into the cylinder and cranking away. After a little smoke it ran just fine for a while. Please note, I have a 30" He-Man say, a 22" alpha male/female say, a 16" girly say, and a 14" OCG saw. All Stihl! I've had the other junk and they are good for a season, maybe. Well, my daughter-in-law, an alpha female, was using one of the girly saws to cut a dead pine tree when she (not her but the saw) ran out of gas. I put in the newly made up sawgas with the synthetic oil and it would not even begin to start. I gave her the next larger girly saw and noted that it only had half a tank. I gassed it up with the new mixture and it ran for about two minutes before quitting, not to start. She then picked up the 22" alpha female saw and finished the job toute suite. The next day, the Stihl dealer said "you did what???!!!" Of course, me being the honest and competent engineer that I am, I blamed it on the OCG.

Now we get to my tank-proof gate. It seems that in Oklahoma, drivers don't know how to make a U-turn at the end of a road without hitting things - like my mailbox and gate. I have had a couple of celebrating young high school girls drive off my almost cliff, being caught by the attached trees. Of course, they had no trouble getting back up to the road with a bunch of boys around with hormones flowing.

Over the last couple of weeks, my gate had been hit hard enough to knock the reflective eyes off my bull head cutout. (great sight for a night-time turn around).

When this happens, my gate, driven by a GTO Mighty Mule opener gets out of "time" and has to be reset. Eventually, the whole mechanism deteriorates badly. This is my third mechanism, and I have talked to the factory repair people about a fix on damaged components. They tell me that they don't really don't try to repair them. If they are in warranty, they just replace the card or mechanism. Of course, that is a hell of a problem if it is not in warranty. One of my local dealers has tried to get someone qualified to repair normal illuse and abuse as occurs on a farm. I need to check back and see if they found anybody. I do think the GTO Mighty Mule company needs to take more responsibility for after-market problem, not in warranty. I am ambivalent about recommending this product to others just for this reason. I do admit that is seems to be a good product, but it was designed by engineering idiots.

Which brings me to mean time between failure (MTBF) and mean time to failure (MTTF). None of these equipments failed through normal use, but we have all had items fail, typically, one week out of warranty.

I think all electrical or mechanical devices, costing over some minimum amount (say $500 - $1000) ought to be required by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or a consensus trade organization (ASTM, IEEE, NEMA, ...) to have published MTBF and MTTF data, along with their uncertainty and confidence levels. That would put Consumers Reports out of business. Your automobile should have MTBF or MTTF figures published. We could have laws (bite my tongue!) that base warrantys on failures before MTTF, with all the costa reimbursed for products failing two sigma before MTTF.s

Our Mule was Hijacked

2011-09-18T09:50:00.002-05:00

Today, the Old Country Girl was out at the wood pile on her Kawasaki mule.When she tried to get back on, she was confronted with a hijacking. Gustafus Adolfus (Gus) took the drivers seat, Wellington called shotgun, and King Henry was left to wonder what happened.

2011-09-11T10:50:00.003-05:00

I was going to include the abominable editorial by Paul Krugman of the fishwrap of record, new york times, but it won't link. It can be found at Hor Air. He has blamed the people of The United States for the 9/11 WTC destruction. He says we deserve it for mistreating all those third world goody-goody muslims (now known a "ragheads"), and that Rudy Guilini and President Bush are false heros. He also allowed no comments.

I think that he has pushed us past reconciliation. The blue staters are invited by me to go their own way and leave the rest of us alone. If they hate us so much, why do they stick around? Form their own country. Good riddance. DLTDHYITA!

I hope I don't have to spend the rest of my life having to put up with these democrat/liberal/marxist haters. I am sick of them. Is there anybody out there that can get them out of my world?

The Nanny State and the Gas Can Spout (Spigot)

2011-08-31T12:47:00.001-05:00

For the last several weeks, I have been looking for replacement Diesel (yellow) cans and spigots. All the cans I have found have the two handed spigot with a lever on the side that must be held open, a two handed operation for arthritic Old Country Boys like me, but since it normally takes another hand or two to hold the can (two if it is five or six gallons), then I need to become a Martian freak with four arms or need help from the Old Country Girl. I have been told by the local NAPA dealer that the Ass Holes at the EPA have mandated this to save the planet and that these new ones are the only ones now on the market; at a $15 - $20 premium, I might say. I believe the environmental freaks at the EPA are discriminating against arthritically disabled people. Knowing the Obamination administration, I seriously if environmental protection enters into the equation. I suspect it involves brothers-in-law or doner whales.

"When the revolution comes", or when Jim Inhofe gets his way, we will take care of this.

You know, When the ASTM promulgates a standard, the responsible author is ofte referenced by name. I think we should have the same required when any government agency promulgates a regulation, whether good or bad. At least these government "authors" can be held accountable for their stupidities.

I am going to Try

2011-08-30T18:34:00.003-05:00

I have neglected this blog because of other pressing issues. I did not think this blog had any popularity. However, I notice that I have had quite a few visits this year. If I never make interesting postings, I cheat anyone who does visit. I know that I have been disappointed in other neglected blogs. So in the interest giving a reward for your visit, I am going to Try to make a few timely posts of items that interest me and that might provide you come good useful information.

I am thinking about providing some information about battlefield radiation survival in the event fuzzy-wuzzy gets through. I may talk a little about the Old Country Girl for those who are facing some decisions on medical implants. Speaking of decisions, I think I will explain the interactions of multiple probabilities of procedure outcomes.

The Artillery Song

2010-06-08T15:59:00.002-05:00

Each of the Arms and Services have their own song. These songs are played during a "march in review" at a parade or muster. From Garry Owen (Armor and Cavalry), Cadets on Parade (Infantry), Essayons (Engineers), to Caissons of the Artillery. When the lord high muckety-mucks decided to elevate Caissons to the Army Song, the lyrics became meaningless and they lost the old lyrics. The following are the lyrics to Caissons, as written in the Plilippines during the Moro Rebellion:

Over hill, over dale,
We have hit the dusty trail,
And those caissons go rolling along.
“Count-er march! Right about”
Hear those wagon soldiers shout,
While those caissons go rolling along.

For it’s Hi! Hi! Hee! in the Field Artillery,
Call off your numbers loud and strong
2, 3, 4
And where-e’re we go
You will always know
That those caissons are rolling along.
(Keep ’em rolling)
That those caissons are rolling along.

To the front, day and night
Where the doughboys dig and fight
And those caissons go rolling along.
Our barrage will be there
Fired on the rocket’s glare
While those caissons go rolling a-long.
For it’s Hi! Hi! Hee! in the Field Artillery,
Call off your numbers loud and strong
2, 3, 4
And where-e’re we go
You will always know
That those caissons are rolling along.
(Keep ’em rolling)
That those caissons are rolling along.
Battery Halt!

The counter march right about were important because the field artillery cannon were pulled by horses connected to the caisson (ammunition wagon) which supported the trail of the cannon or howitzer. Artillery would enter the battle facing the enemy then counter march, every section going right about so the guns faced the enemy, and that wouldn't run into each other while doing it.

Calling off your numbers referred to the jobs of each cannoneer during the process of emplacing and shooting the piece. Each cannoneer had a number from 1 to 6 to 12 (depending on the size of the crew). Calling off their numbers announced that they were in position and ready to continue with the (fire) mission. The lower numbers were reserved for assistant gunners, loaders, fuse cutters, powder cutters, rammers, and ammunition suppliers. The other parts of the Army did not do this, so it was always an interesting occasion for other observers. This is still done today for training new cannoneers at Ft. Sill Oklahoma.

So Long Naughts

2009-12-31T18:31:00.002-06:00

New Year's eve, 2009. So long "naughts", I can't say it has been good knowing you. Looking forward to the "teens". Maybe we can redress some grievances. Maybe the world will end in 2012 as per the worlds prognosticators and more primitive religions. Maybe the US government will do away with income tax. Maybe Oklahoma can win an important bowl game. Maybe some raghead will nuke New York. Maybe some raghead will try to nuke New York but will die puking of radiation poison before he can. Maybe Barak Obama will do his job. Maybe Nancy Pellegro's face will freeze that way do to the botox.

Going into my seventh decade, nothing will surprise me. No politician too dumb or crooked; no act of charity too selfless; no person who fails to act with courage when needed. Bless the rough men who protect us.

A hobby

2009-12-09T19:54:00.003-06:00

Every since I was a toddler, I have ridden the Frisco and Santa Fe trains. I decided a few years ago, with IHC listing of an HO version of the Frisco Firefly, to look into collectiong HO gauge Frisco (a fallen flag) engines and rolling stock. I now have a Frisco Firefly, a Frisco Meteor, a Santa Fe super Chief and a Santa Fe olive drab chief. These are not part of a layout; I just set them on my book cases and look at them.

I do have pictures of me and Old Frisco steam passenger service to Claremore. I love real trains. I have traveled the Tulsan, Kansas City Chief, Chicagoan, Super Chief, El Capitan, Meteor, Firefly, PennTexan, Broadway Limited, National Limited, Capitol Limited, Orient Express, and lately of all things have taken my children and grand children on the Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend. I do love old trains.

Since my first real jobs were in foundries and steel mills, I have also collected the steel making series with ladles, rail thermoses, ingots, rolling mills, blast furnaces,ets. Some dayI will put it all together. However, I am getting along in years and the younger generations are only interested in nientendo and Wii. Manyana. I think the marxist/liberals have killed our past.

Now for the quiz: In this post I have used the one word in the English language with the most definitions. If you do drop by here, can anyone tell me what it is.

I am not a news Aggregator

2009-12-09T19:45:00.003-06:00

It is obvious that I don't post very often. My site meter doesn't work so I don't know if anybody reads any of this anyway. I will comment on news or other comments on my recommended sites.

The world and The United States is in turmoil with the premature socialist attempt of take over, within the US and through the United Nations. I think this attempt is premature. I think the socialists have overstepped. If they just try to salvage what they can of their programs and back off, in the US, they will probably have other days. I fear, however, these people don't know how to back off and they will push the population into reaction. This worries me. We lost over 500,000 in our last civil war. If we get another one, there are more than 500,000 marxist college professors, pedefiles, and con artists, and these people have an unrealistic evaluation of their own physical and military prowess. The butchers bill will make the last civil war pale in camparison.

Fun with the king of battle

2009-12-03T18:37:00.009-06:00

Infantry has always been considered to be the queen of battle. Artillery is known as the King of battle because they place their balls where the queen wants them. My experience with all this dates from the very early 1960s where Uncle Sam assigned me to protect Europe from the red plague. I don't have pictures of the M-109 155 howitzer that I later served with, but here are the two towed howitzers we had: To the left is A battery firing 105mm towed howitzer. The shell is separate (not separate loading, which means you screw in the fuse, pull the projo off the shell and cut and remove powder to the amount you need, stick it back together, hand it to the loader and shoot.

Next is B battery in the snow with 155mm howitzers. Notice tha A battery is in a tree line with camoflauge nets. B battery is in a staggered formation with the howitzers one bursting radius apart. That means when they fire a "fire for effect" the whole target area will be filled with no gaps in coverage.

This is what one of these howitzers looks like up close. It throws a 94 pound projo (give or take a few squares (artillery talk). The ammunition is separate loading, which means you screw in the fuse and load the projo, then the powder after you take out what you don't need.

Here is the money picture. Not a handful of people in a million have ever seen this. When you see this, get ready to go deaf. When you can see this, you know somebody out there is in a heap of trouble.

Lest you forget what we are here for, here is what you see when the tumult and the fighting dies:

Artillerymen are driven creatures. The most important things in their lives are the guns and the mission. Their job is to put metal on target, even if they have to carry it out there on their back.

If you happen to stop by --

2009-09-24T19:41:00.002-05:00

If you happen to stop by, leave a comment. I do some commenting around the net at both liberal and conservative sites. My comments are generally cold water on the prevailing thread, and are often the last comments posted. I like to bring the other commenters back down to Earth from their flights of fancy. Welcome to the site.

The Obama

2009-03-14T09:04:00.002-05:00

I love it. Two comments on the Pajamas Media site:

Upon the Obamaniacs comparing The Obama to Jesus - "Obama spends while Jesus saves."

and

"The difference between The Obama and Jesus is that Jesus knew how to build a cabinet."

The Feelings of a Civilized World

2009-03-03T21:10:00.002-06:00

Tonight, over at Hot Air, several of the people commenting on 'torture' thought the whole civilized world was down on the United States because we were bad torturers, and that we lost their respect.

" turned the whole civilized world against the United States. — True North."

I replied as follows:

The world is not civilized! I am assuming the world you consider to be civilized eats arugula and drinks French wine. Actually, your civilized world would exterminate Jews, enslave women, keep women uneducated, blow up innocent children, restrict the freedoms we hold so dear - speech, religion. Your civilized world sells the makings of weapons of mass destruction to madmen. Your civilized world sacrifices their troops in battle with teabags and nice feelings, and hyper restrictive ROEs instead of bullets and bayonets. The most civilized countries of your civilized world rape children in Africa, instead of protecting and feeding them. Don’t inflict me with your civilized world. I don’t care what your civilized world thinks.

A Tea Party in Tulsa

2009-03-01T09:44:00.005-06:00

On February 27, the old country girl and I went to a tea party at veterans' park in Tulsa. Although Thursday had a high of 80, Friday, the date of the party, it was in the 20s and 30s. We are not people that go to protests, or even know how to protest. We showed up to see what was going on.

AM radio was there.

TV was there.

The old country girl was there. This whole thing was very much grass roots. It was put on by amateurs, as it should be. No professionally trained marxist/democrat community organizers; just grass roots Oklahomans, goose bumps and all. No bull horns, and the microphone didn't work very well. I counted about 250 - 300 people there, but I left an hour early, and people were coming and going all the time. It is possible that over the whole two hours, there could have been a throughput of up to 450 people. Of course, at least 50 of them were reporters and politicians. A good time was had by all.

In this weather, these were definitely NOT sunshine patriots, and not "neopatriots." These were the real thing. In Tulsa, it is hard to get this many people out for anything, even with advanced notice, except to gun shows and basketball games.

The Claremore Progress Bird Cage Liner

2009-02-08T17:39:00.002-06:00

I have to retract my previous statements about the new editor of theClaremore Progress bird cage liner, about the idea that he stated that he wanted a newspaper that reported all sides of the news. So much for that. Mr. Randy Cowling is a typical liberal/socialist/democratic hack.

In the first three-fourths of his illiterate rant, he derides the new Republican majority in the Oklahoma statehouse for passing a new rule that legislations defeated in a previous session can not be reentered verbatum in a subsequent session. Seems like a good idea to me. It is only not a good idea if you subscribe to the techniques that all marxist gains are racheted. If they don't get what they want now, they keep going through it and hiding it in other bills until it passes. Then it can never be rescinded. However, he makes sure several times that it is the dirty dastard republicans that are doing this (Their first time in the majority in 100 years).

The last fourth of his rant is devoted to complaining about the proposition that a party (un-named) in congress has the gold and should make the rules, but another set of obstructionists are keeping the trillion dollars from being passed and denying good Americans jobs and housing. What a stench. I don't know whether the stench is from the Progress or is the smell from Ol' Will coming down from the hill to teach this POS editor how to run a newspaper.

Idol With Feet of clay

2009-02-03T16:52:00.002-06:00

It looks like our new president Barak Obama (PBHN) is establishing his new administration, heavily incorporating hope and change. The hope is that every political crook in the country hopes to come to work for him; the change is what they don't have to pay their taxes. Maybe the new stimulus plan needs to give funds to these tax cheats so they can pay their taxes and get the good jobs in the Obama (PBHN) administration. This would also reduce the crime rate!

Since nobody reads this blog, these postings make me feel good. I don't really care how they make you feel, if you accidently stumble into here.

Groundhog Day

2009-02-02T18:04:00.002-06:00

Today is groundhog day. Having been schooled in western Pennsylvania, this day has a sacredness all its own. After daylight this morning, I went out in the yard to consult my groundhog. The little critter showed his head, but before any decisions could be rendered, my English pointer Wellington snapped it up and ate 'um. After the last two ice storms and the AGW prevaricators, I'm not sure I want any more weather or climate predictions anyway.

September 11 Memories

2008-09-11T20:11:00.004-05:00

This will be rambling post about my observations of events that happened seven years ago on 9/11/01.

Seven years ago, I was giving a poster presentation on standardizing electromagnetic sensors before the FAA-NASA-DOD Ageing Aircraft Conference in Orlando, Florida. The conference was the usual stuff with all the Government wonks wanting all the free handouts from the Peddlers. The talk of the conference was the recent appointment and promotion of a FEMALE officer to head up Air Force Labs (who was at the conference). Mind you, most of the attendees were first rate military and civilian scientists, but many were Logistics Officers (Loggies). Loggies are often the ones that give the Military Industrial Complex a bad name on the government side; none are combat command types.

The XXX intelligence people had a new, huge plasma flat screen television going off in the corner. Suddenly, there was a stir on the floor with people whispering to go look at the TV the XXXs had. There was a world trade center tower on fire. Immediately, the FAA folks made for the exits. The Military held a meeting and made some announcements to return to their units (just like in a John Wayne movie). Then they realized the Brigadier was a woman; to their credit, they followed the star, regardless of gender.. I will admit, for the most part, the most of the military instinctively turned to her for command. She contacted her chain and generally rescinded the return to their units directive, but they were to secure the conference. The universal thoughts were how we were going to get revenge or destroy the country that did this (except for one dude from Maryland that thought we should find out why they did this to us).

To provide relevant background, I was in the Army at Sheridan Kaserne in Germany when the SOFA was signed. I had been living out of a jeep for 3 months, in the winter, on c-rations and no shower. I had permission to return to Augsburg, and but I had no money. I went by the O-club on the way back and was amazed with the spit shined howitzers sitting outside the doors. I entered to a room full of generals, politicians, and diplomats, and nonchalantly walked over to the office window to cash a check. The secretary asked me what I was doing there. I turned around and found a putzfrau was mopping up after me, I really stank; and the generals were surrounding me and looking at me like I was vermin.

In a conference full of Colonels, a captain, LT or SGT were like me at the SOFA conference. Anybody who knows the military knows that Cols, navy Captains, etc do not stand guard. It was interesting watching the COGO and NCOs standing guard. Yet, they were all serious and proud to do it. I was interested in knowing who they were guarding against.

As events ensued , were told that some Middle Easterners had hijacked some heavy aircraft and flown them into the World Trade Center. This conference had people representing civil and military aviation from all over the world. I found no sympathy from anyone for the hijackers.
We did wind the conference down, but nobody could get back home. There is a law that states that Government personnel can not take trips paid for by contractors - a good law in normal circumstances. There were two rental cars in the contingent trying to get back to Tinker AFB. My daughter had one (she is another contractor) and one of the government people had one. So we and a college professor from Oklahoma City went back in a nice comfortable car, and the g-people crammed themselves into a compact. We heard on the radio there was gas gouging, but we did not see any. Everybody we met on the way was shaken up and wanted revenge. Twenty three hours later, we drove into the return at TUL to see a guarded and empty facility. There were cars from California, Ontario, and Florida there. It is amazes me that today, the philosophy from the Maryland dude so permeates our society. Seven years ago, we all were ready to bear any burden and undergo any hardship to punish those that did that to us. Today, the Liberal/cosmo/marxists just want to hold their hands and sing Kumbyah.

A healthy helping of crow!

2008-09-11T13:19:00.002-05:00

I need to eat two healthy helpings of crow. The first concerns the post on Trashy Tulsa. Apparently, I244 accumulated a lot of trash awaiting a final major cleanup before resurfacing. Although this was not obvious to me at the time, I withdraw my Trashy accusations.

The second helping of crow concerns the Claremore Daily Progress newspaper. I am not really sure the crow is really deserved, but it seems they have a new publisher within the last month; a Mr. Bailey Dabney. He is apparently trying to run the newspaper like the ethics of journalism require. He admits the national media is very biased, and he wants the 30% of news, not of Claremore origin, extensively vetted. He has publically chastized the executive editor for passing on a national column that was evidently viscious, politically biased , and untrue. He says it won't happen again.

I think I am going to give them a call and resubscribe after a dozen years. You can contact them at: http://www.claremoreprogress.com/homepage. They might eventually make Will Rogers proud of them.

Trashy Tulsa

2008-08-09T19:53:00.002-05:00

I had to make a trip to Oklahoma City a couple of days ago, and when I returned to Claremore, I took I244 through downtown Tulsa. I have been all over the world, and in some really trashy countries (such as Saudi Arabia), but Tulsa has to be the trashiest place on Earth. The trash along I244 is continuous from downtown to past the airport. In some places it is knee deep. It is on both sides of the interstate. If you drove over some of the things in the trash, you could have serious injuries.

I think this is the some old Oklahoma problem. The governments get tax money (city/state/federal) to maintain roads and infrastructure, but the glitter of new construction is more mesmerizing to the politicians than maintaining what they have. Is it any wonder that the people of Tulsa county keep voting down bond issues for new stuff. The politicos do not spend the bond money for what it was voted, let alone maintain what they have.

A life change

2008-04-22T18:44:00.002-05:00

This blog was never intended to be political. It is going to get there today, however. And if anyone ever tunes in, I don't care if you agree or not, or even if you read it. This blog is for me.

I come from a long line of Republicans. My father and mother were both Republicans. They were Republicans of the party of Lincoln. I have been a Republican since 1961. I have voted for Democrats, particulary here in Oklahoma, where in the past the choice has been among Democrats - bad, middlin', good, and great. The Republicans never showed up. Way back when, the ol' country girl was so disgusted with the choices that she supported and voted for Ross P. I explained that I really thought that would be a lost vote because all that would happen is the conservative and libertarian switch would give us (even at that time) slick willie.

I am not a conservative with a capital "c", but I have become more independent as I age. Well, this old man got a call from a representative of the national Republicans. He gave me the canned spiel about all the support I have given them and so on. He asked me for money. I have given to our two senators Coburn and Inhoff. However, I won't give to the national party. I merely stated that I gave to my two senators, but will not give to the national party until "I'm not going to listen" they come up "to this" with a more reasonable "click" policy on....

As I wrote to Senator Inhoff, I'm going down to the election board this week and re-register other than Republican. My Party has left me.

Armistice, Rememberance, Vetrans Day

2007-11-10T18:58:00.000-06:00

Armistice or Rememberance day, Veterans' Day in Oklahoma, was to honor the veterans of the Great War or World War I. Armistice Day (Rememberance Day in the rest of the world) was set on the date of armistice from that war, 11:00am, November 11th. After WWII, Korea and other conflicts where freedom was defended by the English Speaking Union, Eisenhower changed the name to Veterans' Day in 1954. Later, after Viet Nam, the date was changed the date from November 11th to the 4th monday in October, so the Government employees could have a 3-day weekend. However, since the states do not have to follow the Federal Government holidays, veterans' day is still generally recognized as November 11th.

A proper celebration includes a shot of good whiskey downed at 11:00 am on that hallowed day. With the downing is a salute to veterans and missing comrads who can't be with us today.

With this, I as an old artilleryman would like to salute the ultimate sacrifice of a neighborhood friend from my boyhood, Army Sergeant Duane Farl Wagner, who fell in Viet Nam. Duane gave his all that we may be free.

Happy birthday marines.

Tietz's Law

2007-11-06T15:05:00.000-06:00

Years ago I promulgated a law of manufacturing and quality assurance that I think would be approved of by C. Northcote Parkinson. The law states "Whoever finds the defect is responsible for it." As a young engineer, I detected a major material flaw and wrote it up. The first words out of managements mouth was "What are you going to do about it." During my wanderings through this life, I have encountered this management attitude innumerable times. This law has been taught to quality assurance students as a precautionary tale by friends of mine in academia.

There is a similar quality situation where the same words mean different things. The charter of Purchasing is to buy low dollar. If they don't entirely understand the specs, Purchasing has been known to buy items that don't meet the requirements. Quality will generally detect the sub standardness and reject it. Meanwhile, Manufacturing, trying to make or keep schedule will say they can make it right. This puts a big load on Quality to ensure they do just that. Note now that Purchasing looks good because they have saved the company money, Manufacturing looks good because they keep their schedule, and quality is over budget. The Customer, if there is in-shop inspection, notes that Quality is working their asses off to get them a good product, but the company has lousy quality. The MBAs and CPAs get hold of this and give pay raises to Purchasing, more time to do the job to Manufacturing (because they get their estimates from past performance), and fire the Quality manager, because the customer says the company has lousy quality (with a small q).

The same thing happens even if Purchasing is not involved. The lousier the job Manufacturing does, the more nonconformances occur and the more over-budget Quality goes.

With all the advance degrees Management has; with all the years experience; and often being born in the best of families, it has never occured to them that Quality Assurance has never made one product - that is the job of Manufacturing.

CMU has some great links for Cyber Security

2007-11-02T14:17:00.000-05:00

In 1961, with the help of a friend, and spurred on by procrastinating my crystallography assignment, we programmed the first relatively primitive computer program for a multi-order quadratic equation to calculate the crystal lattice parameters of a tungsten-osmium compound. At that time, the Carnegie Institute of Technology (CIT) had a five story computer covered by a building operated by the Graduate School of Industrial Administration (GSIA). We used a little Bendix G-15 processor and punched tape. I'm not sure we got the right answer, but we got it faster than anyone else. Instead of turning in all my calculations, I just turned in the final iteration of the equation on punched tape. I got my paper back with an A+ and was called into the department head's office. He asked me how I did it and then immediately ran out of the room to the GSIA building to find out if there was such a thing as a remote terminal for the crystallography lab.

Since that time, CIT has progressed to become the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). While I have putzed around with TIs, IBMs, and HPs, they have become what many believe to be the world's foremost authorities on robotics, hardware, programming, and cyber security. I have provided a link to one of the labs. If you can get there, you can get to the rest of the outfit. http://privacy.cs.cmu.edu/

Carnegie Mellon University [cm-today@andrew.cmu.edu]

I will try to provide engineering answers

2007-10-27T16:34:00.000-05:00

Not all engineers drive trains. Some of us try ensure the bolts are tight so the train can pass safely into the night. In my case, the trains are airplanes and nuclear reactor systems. I welcome questions and problems in the following: Metallurgy
Nondestructive Engineering
Aircraft corrosion
Metrology
However, as Larry Niven has said, I won't be responsible for advise not taken. I will append this with I won't be responsible, even if it is taken.

In addition to free engineering answers, I intend to bore anyone who dares read this blog with my personal musings and experiences.

First post of a new blog

2007-10-27T16:27:00.000-05:00

Well, this is my first shot at blogging. I have spent several years reading blogs and have several that I rigorously follow. Lately, I have has some little input into those blogs' comments sections, but the either there wasn't enough space to make a good, cogent comment or as things developed, I would like to have expounded without the limitations of doing it on someone else's blog. So here goes: .....