December 31, 2005

Anenome

Have a Happy, Healthy New Year

Behavior

The link is to a post on a study about salmon farming and health benefits. If you think in chemical terms, the you are what you eat crowd, the natures, score a big one over the nurtures. The science design is interesting and the article promotes a good view of what a scientist has to deal with to design a properly controlled experiment.

Life - doesn't work like science at all, and psychology is not a one size fits all matter. Behavior is a complicated series of interrelationships and pressures and quite often, poor body chemistry influences moods. I was down on blood sugar yesterday and the major change in my diet was that i had taken a series of vitamins. The depletion of my system must have had me at a good equilibrium level, because i was relating well. But yesterday was frustrating, and i handled it very badly and dug myself into the same hole i've been climbing howdt of. Perhaps it is shallower this time, because I see to be gaining control. My head hurts, because i missed my afternoon coffee yesterday, which was part of the crash. I didn't get help when i needed it, and i apparently blamed the wife for the problem - by implying behavior that i assigned to her, but was 'not under her control'. dementia, and i suffer. i feel badly and will dust myself off and climb the ladder again.

Work - if you chase the income, you have no freedom. if you dont chase the income, you have no means. the game is played on a tilted ball-field. But - if i don't value myself better, then nobody can assign proper value to my services. To this end, i retrofit howdt.com to enable my business Science Eyes to play a larger role. As i build the science school of the future targeted initially to a middle school audience, i hope to create a learning environment that keeps me on the cutting edge of what is interesting to the students that are learning how to put it together. There will be no credit involved - courses are stand alone, but experience gained within the system will be logged, as a means of gaining 'power and influence' in the world of accurate measurement. If you would like to help, conceptual letters of support for the redile approach in the local area would be greatly appreciate. A stable monetary base to accept reimbursement grants is also required - we now have internal non-profit staus - which as a scientist doesn't mean what the words would make me think it means.

While doing this, i will be gathering the information available about the Umpqua Resource, and preparing a thesis on the dynamics of forest/riparian ecology and the effects on climate and health, via the migration of key inorganic molecules and the forced immediate development of mitigational biodiversification. We need for conservation biologists to address the question - what is chemically going on in the amphibian world. The question is just a symptom of the real problem.

Global climate change is not an issue - it is a constant. But - periodically, the earth chemistry reaches the point where a limiting factor runs out, and until the function that is lost is replaced, that particular cycle grinds to a halt. As we monoculturize and lose biodivesity, we extinguish pathways toward getting the volume of function done, while increasing the net entropy of the system. Unproductive work just puts chaotic energy into the system, in this case the atmosphere, but with no real outlet, it manifests itself in climatinc disturbance. Thus Katrina and Rita are harbingers for the future as atmospheric waste energy is collected and mobilized. The current ground saturation here from the rain has significant widened the river system, with serious landslide potential.


ONRRI will focus on science, getting the details together and fact checking for the book that i've been working on and threatening to publish. The premise, that limiting micronutrients in local systems create biological patterns that remove volume from the metabolic cycle, and monoculturization causes diversity loss in the number of systems that can take the generated raw material, now called waste, and bring it back into the volume stream. The Umpqua will be the resource base that i talk about, but it will be a model system to be applied to other locations and other restoration/conservation type projects. In addition, i will serve as a public oversight specialist in the application of science to natural resources.

If you wish to be a player in an immersion game approach to Science via the language of math - ie. tap into my world - join the ONRRI school at yourclassroom dotcom, whisey dotsey, YC.C . My brain hertz, but, the stress of life requires change of approach. Instead of playing in a hollywood world, i'll go back into my mushroom permanently and invite people in - Lewis Carroll, Robert Frost, Henry David Thoreau, ee cummings, Werner Heisenberg, Tyco Brahe, Ayn Rand, Madonna and Steven Speilberg. - influence and power in the real world should have no bearing once the wardrobe threshhold is crossed (david brin - is that what you have done?)


If you are not into science, but have an aspect of knowledge that you can teach, (credentials required), we would welcome sharing the delivery system and broadening the base to other fields of interest. The educator controls her own classroom, but learns with application to specific areas of personal interest. The students co-learn and the Redile passes necessary skills along rather than unecessary trivia (from the learning POV).

December 30, 2005

Pundit

As an ornery curmudgeon, i predict : 2006 brings a personal return to confidence and a total collapse of the country's economy and government. Like 1986 USSR - Congress goes the way of the poliburo. they have lost their jurisdiction by inaction and utter contempt for everybody else - time to shove washington into the potomac! The popular press is totally discredited and finally the lemmings start trying to add two plus two. But they can't, they're lemmings and so we will have more patriot act rammed down our throat. The third totally discredited institution will be the federal reserve and with it the banking system. As we collectively reassess our premises and decide what really is of value to hold onto during the collapse of 'civilization as we know it', most people will go on with their lives without the access to the fruits of others labors. Then it becomes a do it or don't do it world. Some people prefer to stand in lines and wait for what is coming to them - so be it.
So - prediction one - congress loses jurisdiction - power returns to states because that is what the constitution is all about. prediction two - people stop believing what they read and start evaluating what the material says in relation to what they really know - the big media loses more influence. prediction three - people change their personal howdtlook and reconfigure their expectations in light of the burst of reality that we all face when the props used by the greenspan behind the economic oz curtain fall into the hands of bernanke.

Road Trip

Got howdt of dodge yesterday and visited the cats. Tiger cubs have grown! Twister, a three month old caracal entertained me by pouncing on a suspended toy mouse, and the river was near flood stage in many places. As soon as the climatologists started talking drought again, the weather warmed, the rain started and the snowmelt began, the ground is very, very saturated. Landslideville. River shot is the South Umpqua.


December 28, 2005

changing focus

if you had more money
would it affect the way
you live your life?
or would it empower
more of the same
to a grander effect?
what wudja cudja do
that ya cant do now
virtual maximization
of personal sphere
enhanced acquisition
applied personal appearance
ego statiating pallative hides
empty longing 4 acceptance
substituted by 2 much stuff
listen~no hugs, no joy, no peace
consumptive degradation
via abandonment 2 pursuit
of money instead of knowledge
of money instead of love
of money instead of reason
of money instead of peace
look at doing by doing
invest inmental sanity
minimize 2 maximize
allow the footprints 2
remain in the sands of time
watch, create watts desired
one step at a thyme
do to do, appreciate 2 love
the drum beats beat
march or listen, lead or follow
but stay out of the weight
as the devaluation of value
reconfiguration occurs
if you have less money
would it affect the way
you live your life?

(c) 2005 lemme howdt

Howdt - A Site

The face of the main website howdt dot com has morphed for the ninth time. I hope to have some further links and archives added later in the week.

If you like what you see, turn off the TV and do it. Zoom! Howdt - A Site is a direct connect for people who are willing to spend the time investing in themselves, by doing the work involved to collect data and investigate things that you don't already know. It is co-learning with Dr. Lenny because I am going to be figuring howdt things.

I do know a few things, especially about molecular chemistry, models, toys and games, sports, and animals. Except for detroit lions, who will draft another wide howdt while they trade joey harrington for a third round pick. If they drafted a left tackle to protect a joey harrington (or a barry sanders), then maybe they wouldn't waste servicable value. but then again, they are the detroit lions. Diesel prefers the bengals. Check inside howdt.


EH - 56 : Global Cooling

CO2 will never be the most important greenhouse gas (the main greenhouse gas on this planet is the sinister pollutant dihydrogen monoxide. DHMO, as it is commonly known, causes 95% of the greenhouse warming effect. Government water projects in the US have contributed to higher DHMO levels, and thus to Global Warming.)

Bill Walker talks chemistry for a while in this review of Michael Crichton's novel State of Fear and the current global climate trends. For those of you readers who know and love chemistry problems - chuckle when you think about how the people that will be bothered by the next fact. DHMO has been implicated in a huge number of deaths worldwide! But technically, drowning is not a chemical death, go figure. Death is not really the end; ashes to ashes, dust to dust...

December 27, 2005

animal instincts

increasing breadth
decreasing amplitude
hopeless dynamics
auras hours burn deep
when equines and felines
bring stronger comfort
than homo sapienses
lying canines that they are

(c) 2005 lemme howdt

December 26, 2005

Sharps or Flats

Character determines the setting for future hopes, and the NFL is America's favorite stage. There are two teams that have to show their character next week - and i'd like to see both succeed for the sake of their coaching staffs - who may have to go if the game next week is flat. The Atlanta Falcons and San Diego Chargers are both better teams than many of the playoff contenders. Time to take a look beyond the talent on the field and see what sort of heart these two teams play with against Carolina and Denver this coming weekend. I hope both teams come howdt sharp as a tack and kick butt.

Good Natured Bitterness

With apologies to Ayn and Ali, it struck me that i really am no-longer good natured - and it has to do with greed. I don't consider my self greedy but i do believe that i am introverted enough to understand the minimum things that i need to have for me to function well in our current environment. We all need food, shelter and the like, but in the physical mental sphere, there are things that we need to keep us happy enough to be fully productive and when our priorities shift, we generally feel off-keel.

Working in natural resources, i feel that i have an over-abundant playground to find the draws to my passion that keep me in a sphere where i can interact with people and exchange knowledge value. Since my umbilical cord is my computer - periodic upgrades are like moving from CD to DVD or analog to digital television - eventually the cost comes down and we all go - but the people into it need to keep leading edge, trying and doing new things.

In working with schools, and the grubbermint and a non-profit suck em dry business, we put together a system, redile, that worked for people that freely chose to follow me on the path not generally taken. My appreciation of Frost allowed me to turn to create in a new area, but i kept being drawn to protecting (and compromising) the values i was trying to build in order to keep things going and make it work for the target - the youth that i had committed to at the beginning of the time period. Consensus - while it may be viable for governance - when applied outside a meetingplace turns into handcuffs. People can not work by consensus.

My target was to have an effective program to meet my son in 9th grade - woulda, shoulda, kouda - he is in 9th grade and i am debating whether to even bother to stay here. The path of bringing in people to develop consensus constantly eroded the values we produced. The first Bug Zone worked well - because of the novelty, we had fairly unconstrained ability to seek knowledge that only our group guides really had. I became a teenager again - but with responsibilities to the adult world. I needed to learn about resources first hand - so i essentially rolled up sleeves, dove in and developed essentially another doctorate (which i need to write up as a book - target spring) in applied resource chemistry.

The first mistake was allowing the schools to insist on one size fits all. When students can self-select based on interest, there was a desire to do the things necessary to learn the depth of the topic. When we moved into classrooms - we got sucked into the miasma of ill will from two groups - the kids who couldn't keep up and the administrators - who saw us as dog and pony because that was what they had always had.

Meanwhile - the director of the non-profit left and the new director refused to honor any agreements with me personally. I came in way undervalue as a personal service initially, on the condition that my fund-raising raise my pay, but no money followed any of the grants once my salary was established - even a salary increase written into one of the grants. The organization wouldn't spend on materials - i was using my personal computer at the office during the whole time period. It was my resolve to do it, because i committed to the kids (and highly interested in what i was learning) that i was attempting to draw. I couldn't lie to them and work a viable program. So i self funded. My mentor self-funded the larger operation. And we got every kid that was with us the first year of the program through high-school.

The agencies didn't really want junior scientists - their scientists feared for their jobs and kept them by shrouding their work in mystery and for the most part - finding data to produce that fit the political interest of the agency agenda. They want to talk about what they do in an hour - show and tell - our current one size fits all teaching style. Bosses saw our sharp high-school students as intern workers - replacement for temporary help that slowly replaced permanents. The temporaries knew this - they wouldn't take the conduit positions in redile because they would be outsourcing their work to students. Smart high school kids become summer replacement for temporaries and more competition when they reach college. But what do these agency scientists really do? Most shuffle papers and do so little real science, we would be embarrassed. And people don't have the expertise to deal in their assigned areas, so they defer to the so-called experts. Formosa ghosts.

So now, i am no longer disposed toward good will. I greedily seek resources to squirrel away because i have to live. I doubled up a new laptop as a X-mas present - because, i have to justify keeping up to speed to get information to work. But i am not being paid to work, because i couldn't allow the system to be hijacked again when i wasn't even able to make ends meet for the effort. Government run education can blackball anybody that doesn't teach to the tests, by defunding any efforts through the backdoor. When you are doing the work on the ground - you don't have time or effort to chase the money.

I agreed to chase the money to do the program, and we were successful - but i didn't spent any time watching who got the money and i lost my good nature, because the people i trusted to take care of me couldn't. Now i have to take care of myself - from way behind the eightball of where i would have been if i had been putting in the same effort to create dog and pony shows for pretend education. And i have to find people i can trust - because the current show has left me doubting.

I tried one last show with depth salinity - but the students don't have the resolve and the self-selection process was marginalized - they need bribes to continue and a better future job or college scholarship is a non-viable bribe here for rural american kids. I feel my loss of idealism is representative of their generation, yet the kids that we touched through ONRRI that honestly put effort into their work in the program all came out as winners - and for that i came howdt a winner as i move on to rebuild and tackle the great monster that hides knowledge for profit. When we slay that monster, perhaps i'll develop my good-nature again.

December 25, 2005

Howdt side Holiday

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, may nature snag a sunset into your purview ! (And some hot qophy or hot chocolate)

December 24, 2005

Approach 2 Knowledge

Form and substance are both separate aspects of material things. If either is missing, the entity living, dead or never sentient is not viable. If the lattice structure of our current belief system is fraying into a significant paradigm change (aka Galileo, Newton or Einstein, then assessing truth will require significant effort to divorce embedded assumptions which protect ideas, laws and theories from specific scrutiny prior to adoption. That is assuming that knowledge seeks truth, which is one of those embedded assumption i dislike.

Thus i offer the immersion theory of learning: With no specific knowledge, but a general comprehension of basic rules, a group of individuals planted into a situation will respond to any stimulus with an action that seeks the best outcome for the individual members of the group. Thus, by observing the reaction and reporting accurate numerical count information for statistical purpose (non-content basis*), a non-linear regression of thought can be built to digest new information, where analysis of the information over time should provide a stimulus-response curve built upon expertise.

In point of fact, what i just said almost describes the TV show survivor. The system today has become a game where every individual is at risk of becoming an enemy of the state - like Gene Hackman and Will Smith. If no individual comes forward as a target, the powers that be entertain themselves by picking off their own, offering the sacrifice of a scooter of the day, the guy who doesn't happen to have a place to put his hand on the bat grip. Tis a pity...

*Each unit requires specific content. Where the content originates, how it is collected, the methodology and quality assurance are all significant features, but are not germane at all to the understanding of the ultimate reality, the natural law conceptualization that will allow us the functions of governance without the hierarchical baggage system.

EH - 55 : Politics

Bradley Smith, former Federal Elections Commissioner, describes the John McCain view of the world - politicians don't want to hear from we da people, when they can conveniently legislate not to have to. The october 2006 bombshell that manipulates the congressional election will tell us whether there will even be 2008 elections. For another view on how politics is controlled - google Ballot Access News and subscribe. Richard Winger does yeoman's work on how political process is processed, in each state.

December 23, 2005

PUR fect

The Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers Logo just arrived in my e-mailbox. This group is very influential in developing actions that extend the domain of salmonid fish by bringing together diverse interests. With seventeen directors operating in a consensus process, this watershed council puts it's money into the stream - culvert replacements, riparian habitat restoration, water quality monitoring, etc.

As one of the directors, Doctor Lenny represents conservation science at the table. By donating time to the development of social equity in land management at all scales, our watershed council has forged a means for allocating tightly controlled resources effectively. The depth of the partnership, including tribes, municipalities, agriculture, timber, mining, conservation districts, state & federal agencies and recreation require that every action be vetted through multiple filters. And every filter has veto power.

Every member of the organization is encouraged to bring issues of concern and the net desired effect is that fish populations should return to population levels that encourage harvest without threatening extinction. All we can do is all we can do - and ocean conditions play a major role - but effective land management requires interested parties working on significant fish-centric issues. So my hat goes off to the other 16 directors and the staff and membership on a job well done. So far. Life is only beginning.

December 22, 2005

Poems - Homecoming - Reluctant Commuter

homecoming

when 'our boys'
come home
come home
to share
experience
at failed
failed warfare,
they will
will undoubtedly
undoubtedly
bring their
violenceanger
bloodshed
home to share

2005 lemme howdt
___________________________
reluctant commuter

from the foggy hinterlandz
via the hard paved arterialz
to the heart of beehive activity
morning commute 4 lemmingz
normal traffic abeyance mechanizm
overridden by need 2 feed
we R personal income robotz
generatorz 4 family unit functionz
... now airy blue mistz alternate
orange tepid huez pending
angle of sunshine rayz
raze thru the haze az
we work neath the reyz
of R openly hostile whirled

2005 lemme howdt

December 21, 2005

Stream Restoration

The knowledge of chemistry that i have is now available for students to tap into at yourclassroom.com . I can apply this material to any specific topic upon request, but right now, the two areas of focus are natural resources and nursing. As a tip-off to the potential of this system - i would like to refer the readers to this self-paced archived summary of some watershed work done the past few years in Douglas County. All valid critiques are welcome.

The Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers - formerly the Umpqua Basin Watershed Council - will unleash the Umpqua Explorer website sometime early in 2006. This site will provide information on restoration projects done by watershed council partners on public lands in the Umpqua.

Dr. Lenny would like to thank Kent Smith for the meritorious services provided to the technical advisory committee of the Umpqua Basin Watershed Council. Kent runs InSight Consultants and does in-depth temperature
monitoring on the Umpqua. Kent has just stepped down as the leader of the TAC - (a 50's song)


December 20, 2005

EH - 54 : Intelligent Design

"But it is precisely such firmly entrenched orthodoxies that most cry out for challenges. …all scientific ideas should be open to criticism and that broad acceptance of a theory is no guarantee of its truth seems even more valuable than conveying the details of any particular theory."

Just today at the watershed council meeting, I had to exhort a state official to read the science reports and question them, rather than blindly trusting that the scientists even have a clue. Then I came home and read this piece by Gene Callahan and knew that i had hit the nail on the head.

Contingency Tutor on Retainer

As I was starting to put classes and class descriptions into http://www.yourclassroom.com , i realized that a student currently taking chemistry could have an on-line PhD tutor in whatever chemistry course they happened to be taking for the price of taking one course. Since we now have the capability, i would be willing to design chemistry courses for any specific operation - as long as there was a critical mass of students paying to make it worth my time. The lecture hall/classroom partnership will take some getting used to, but developing mentor - mentee relationships to transmit knowledge, not just information, is one of the key features of the Redile system.

If you are a high school student looking for a place to land that you can sink your teeth into and learn, there are opportunities for senior projects that will earn you scholarships or work experiences. If you are in a career and could benefit by understanding some of this chemistry stuff, this is a means to acquire knowledge without going to school for a term. I'd like people who have an interest in learning to help me howdt by making suggestions, offering courses in their specialty field, so that we can make effective learning part of the service we provide. If you are creative - this may be an outlet - we want to tap into people's interest in our interests and feed off the enthusiasm.

Dr. Lenny's degree is in chemistry and my current profession involves watershed education, so this makes sense as a means of collating what i know into a publishable text. However, i can also offer courses in areas of personal expertise, like raising rabbits, playing chess, composting, philosophy and ethics, politix (egad - sacrilege - he mentioned politics when talking about education - that's worse than allowing religion in our schools - no contrary opinions allowed!) shut up shut up you union fool (now we see the violence inherent in the system, help, help, i'm being repressed) bloody peasant (dead giveaway)

December 19, 2005

Elk, grazing

On the way to Reedsport, the herd was out, so on the way back i was able to catch this shot. The sun angle made it difficult, but the action speaks, so to speak.

Watch howdt

If you wish to change your mind, go right ahead. But please don't feel that you can take any side of any issue at will and ignore evidence to the contrary, just because you don't like the implication of where it goes. It will be the same way forever until you change yourself and your expectation level - others do not think the same way that you do. Each personsenscientbeing is hard wired differently from the DNA software - the tricks hidden in the molecules delight the well-initiated to the wonders of what has become.

Watch

Not because
we done it
we made it
or we figured
it all out (again?),
but just because
we now observe it
mentally construe it
within the framework
of our understanding,
we can delight
in simple pleasures
as mechanical vibration
shakes psycho-logic world
off its precipice,
yet remain in position
to pick up pieces
should we successfully
keep heads down
as fury lashes back
in utter defeat
(c) 2005 lemme howdt

December 18, 2005

EH - 53 : Agriterrorism

Stan Cox goes into great science detail in explaining that with practices like ours, who needs terrorists. This is one of the first major media pieces that i have read that discusses real science in terms that non-science folks can understand, with howdt condescending.

EH - 52 : Science and Religion

it seems that most people -- on both sides of the debate about religion and science in the United States -- share a belief in a kind of magic.

Robert Jensen goes deep into the philosophy of this debate - when, in reality, there is no debate and the consensus is rapidly bypassing shallow opinions on both sides. Relocating focus on investigation by unbiased means means reevaluating the scientific and religious methods for comprehending truth. No organized point of view can have a monopoly on truth, but we as individuals know when we sense it. And moreso - when we sense it's absense. In the absense of truth, the world is entirely fiction.

doncha just love being able to use homonyms next to each other in a proper grammatical sentence.

December 17, 2005

science beliefz

Cross-posted at Future Hi as a comment:

As far as personal networks and influence level for organizing people, the xMax demonstrates that potential. but - before we worry about organizing people, perhaps organizing ourselves as individuals is in order. there is so much cognitive dissonance that it is difficult to think. cutting through the b.s. requires a broad knowledge base and right now, all of us in this country are working with the same manipulated tools that may or may not be technically correct. How long has the lying been going on before we recognized that it was pervasive?

But Paul is onto something, and the positive approach is welcome and totally acceptible. It may take a bit of a while for some of us curmudgeons to convert over, but norman vincent peale defined the field nicely in a Previous Hi. There is a dude named jeff in oregon spreading positive thoughts to 'warriors' - i don't know where he is going with it - but he is nearly at his magic number of a thousand.

'''
how far back do incorrect notions go and how do we correct them? For science texts - i trust the gospel authors - pauling's chemistry, einstein and heisenberg physics, the fundamental basis seems correct. function is as important as form and things like mendeleev's table form a correct basis of classification. dichotemous keys in biology serve the same purpose, but in a vastly different form - just groupings of cataloged information. But one size fits all groupings portray distinct bias also. To correct them, we have to look at unbiased, properly collated and collected raw data.

something fundamental about science has been shielded from the public thought. there has to be another fundamental force that was discovered and not talked about, because chemistry alone cannot explain sentience. physics underpins that chemical basis and if we take that transformation of elements is rare and well characterized, then there must be some aspect of an unknown force that allows me to scratch my nose when it itches.

bells are ringing, my ears are crying and the migraine that i've been riding this weekend i have aptly nicknamed ice pick in the eye. but when you have to concentrate to do simple tasks and your brain functions at superhypersensitive mode - you start thinking too deeply and putting things together in improper context. our problems seem to be not enough deep thought and too much consensus, with allowing the experts to decide, but then lacking the diligence to check the qualifications of so-called experts. i think i'll go off into the dark and try to alter my reality into the dream state. g'nite

statement

i, neither
mainstream
nor fringe,
prefer life
as yet
another
tributary
of legitimate
knowledge

December 16, 2005

Salt Bridge

The Scottsburg bridge is the last place traffic crosses the umpqua river. some folks say that ocean tides reach up here, roughly 18 miles from Reedsport - but somehow i just can't buy that anecdotal evidence. A team of juniors in oceanography at Reedsport High will pick up a project with Dr. Lenny to measure the extent of tidal influence up the Umpqua. Factors to watch include upstream precipitation, extent of snow pack, phase of the moon and tidal influences. Hopefully as the students get more in depth, they will start figuring howdt some of the other factors.

December 15, 2005

Unreasonable Collateral Damage - youth

Why do we expect middle school students get everything knowledgewise and then be able to apply it all to choose a career in high school? Making kids accountable requires actually giving them some responsibility and allowing them to deal with the consequences. We tend to load bright kids with more work, work bringing lesser kids up to speed rather than teaching to the bright kids potential. God forbid a kid be sharper than the teacher she's been given. Then it becomes an adult vs child battle, which psychologically destroys the kid and really destroys the potential. This patently unfair abuse is pervasive in schools, yet the adults either don't see it or take advantage of it. Either way, the kid gets put down and made to feel bad about questioning anything.

Most marginalized kids hook up with other marginalized kids to be overtly underproductive. Instead of having schools let kids develop and run with their interests, we have 50 minute boredom sessions of intolentant gobblety-gook for 25 of the 30 participants. This is what we have with one size fits all, outcome based no child left behind education. Time to forget the school system - get rid of both state and federal departments of education and have the local school-boards choose the knowledge content that befits their community. And if you have to bus people around - bus the teachers from school to school and let the kids learn in smaller volume settings closer to home. Use knowledge content and use as the matric for grade passage, rather than age.

December 14, 2005

Training - signs

At Stewart Park, there is a train engine for kids to play on, right near the clamshell, the ballfield and the golf course. Rarely ever have i seen many kids playing in the variety of compartments and infolds that old engines have - but the sign says it all - liability is more costly. So trains disappear as a way of life and trucks, three long and over-heavy barrel down the freeways intermixed with passenger traffic. Wouldn't it make sense to invest in a public works project to rebuild the rail system and at the very least, efficiently ship goods via the network. Passengers would take that much more enthusiasm because cargo doesn't complain. Given the high speed rail variety available in some other places - i think this gothic is best left as a relic in a park for kids to play on, even at their own risk.

December 13, 2005

Right

i'm right
you're wrong
you're right
i'm wrong
we're right
they're wrong
they're right
we're wrong
whatever became
of the left?

lemme howdt 2005

December 12, 2005

More Tiller Shots

The first shot here shows two logs that have the makings of an awesome good placement - delivered naturally by last weeks major storm event. The second is just a fairly nice fern.

i voted for Jesse again

Kitty cats, Natalie, the NFL and now political polls - i think i'll let James L. Wilson surf the net for me. independent county rocks! Since the next president is going to be a total media creation - so why don't we form our own party party media rocks show and throw rocks at the other parties - figuratively, not literally.

Lemme suggests open ended poll questions - the no answer questions that make you think until your brain hurts and you end up like a monty python twit, with a knotted hankerchief on your head. Lemme's first question -

What is the specific energy source that creates sentience?

XXa) the sun b) cold fusion c) nucleic acid d) lysergic acid e) gaia f) aliens g) geothermal h) extrasensory perception i) wizards j) little white mice k) goddesses l) all of the above m) none of the above

EH-51 : Energy

"Energy reserves are created by human minds out of the raw materials of nature."

Bill Walker discusses energy reserves and world energy policy. Given a few more years, nuclear energy will be a viable option elsewhere. Pocket fusion (cold) is also a possibility - but if we move away from the carbon cycle as the main producer of energy, then we will have to rely on restoring the eco-system to establish the holding for the reduced flux of the carbon cycle.

In fact - the carbon cycle which controls the earth could potentially be separated completely from human enterprise energy. But right now - not only is fossil fuel energy part of the consumptive problem - wood alternatives are desperately necessary for reducing pressure on overcut forests - the density patterns and fire regime mismanagement have really help shut down the replacement mechanism for the past 200 years of termite like overconsumption.

It is the form of the material that we choose to use that is misplaced, we need to look at form and function better and leave the necessary ecological function alone. Amphibians are disappearing, but not quite as fast as herpetologists that try to understand them - no money in that. money - a friend noted that all work for money is prostitution - i have to disagree. But if you work for the love of what you do, the money should follow the success - today we have rerouted the money into a separate stream of affairs and the concerns of the support system planet earth are not shared by the enlightened. Pity. didn't Shakespeare pen the line - tis a pity she's a whore. amazing. (i googled - seems so, but couldn't track the reference in the time allotted) - but John Ford has a contemporary play by the same name)

BTW - bonner's piece on friedman is so-o true. As is Vance on war-mongering christians. Anyone not tuning in to LRC on a regular basis is missing the major wave in the changing tide. Grab the surf and become Austrian educated and economically literate.

December 11, 2005

identity politix

Gay? So
why identify
people by group
when we
generally identify
ourselves by name

Black? So
why engage
bitterness of history
when we
engage people
with smile greeting

Female? So
why resent
glass ceilings
when we
resent intuitively
people who lead

White Male? So
get over it
not your burden
when we
increasingly desire
competent individuals

Human? So
intellectual arrogance
species dominance
when we
learn by observation
of others doing

Earthly? So
other worlds
invisible horizons
when we
dream of stars
with glossy eyes

So? So
handicaps
self-imposed
when we
decide what to see
before we see

Gay? So what

(c) 2005 lemme howdt

December 10, 2005

Self-Image

EH - 50 : Television

This is a long piece, but many of the themes of lemme howdt poetry run throughout the text. Manuel Valenzuela goes deep into post wwII amerikan psyche to describe why dr. lenny no longer focuses attention on the tube. However - discerning valid information from the miasma of the internet is difficult if thought is not previously brought into context.

The genius of the American Establishment, learned after World War II, was in sacrificing a minute piece of the American pie to the growing middle class – that would have previously been greedily kept – in order to maintain the masses in an utter state of comfort, thus creating an environment of silent passivity, complacency and calm, where the masses would have nothing to protest or dissent over.

December 09, 2005

insight howdtsite

history doesn't make for current viability in work - perhaps maybe it will once again in the future. right now, the political climate makes it difficult to gather valid information, as so much is put forth in a terribly chaotic manner. the valuable information is not put forth; because it is valued, comes with a monetary price. Poor economics is our downfall, our money is rapidly becoming worthless. dr lenny howdt

random chaotic hitz

i blogged in claireville the other day and had the details of the Mayan calendar explained to me. It's almost Spock-like in its logic. The blogging communities that have developed as part of the interwebbing of sites makes it such that if anarchy would even be attempted, the movement toward the next order will have been initiated. A chaos watch and an order watch on the march to 2012 will become features of the howdtworld concept.

chaotic as it seems - people always show up to the party late and get belligerent when they find they've missed the action. Like it's supposed to wait for them. Opportunity is a door that swings open and shut, if the barn door taps your rear, the horses are gone. Each time we have to go back and pick up somebody that missed the bus, the amount of time we have on our journey when we get there shortens. Time is important, and people blow it off, yet live by their watches. If you know your always late, change your watch by 15 minutes. i don't wear a watch, no feel pressured by time - except when other people care to use my time - i care that they not waste it.

orderly - does the lack of germs in hospitals in general just create an atmosphere that sterilizes people's immune systems when they really need to have them activated? does taking a drug to meet a symptom that you heard about on television, give a placebo effect that solves the problem mentally, no matter what the chemical content of the pill? how do we know that what the label says is the truth - since the corporate crusaders for the companies (like Rummy and Searle and Nutrisweet) have demonstrated their ability to deceive large masses of people for power and profit. What would happen if as a protest, we only filled our gas tanks half-way and let them deal with an overcapacity problem, would prices go down? (mel's idea) (prices of gas have gone down, while masking the severe price rise in everything else)

oh, i guess this orderly is kinda chaotic too - well, dr. Lenny's just a walking bundle of chaos, with an howdt of left field anarchic approach, node howdt.

December 08, 2005

Philly Cheesesteak

As Doctor Lenny was perusing Science magazine this week he was struck by a want add for a watershed scientist to coordinate scientific data from 35 different sites. The position requires a fud and lots of experience, and is in my old stomping grounds in eastern pennsyltucky. Of course, there could be extraneous medical challenges that might prevent such a logistic transfer, but ... it would be nice to interview and catch a sandwich.

December 07, 2005

Sharp?

horse
upon learning
that compost
keeps footses
warm, precludes
the potential
for stacking
piles in
pasture, where
manure is
created

2005 (c) lemme howdt

Tiller - thought 2

Tiller is a beautiful place, but if the Forest Service can't afford to take care of the forest, they need to sell the land and get out of the land management business alltogether. The federal government should not be allowed to redirect their assets to other endeavors without serving the local communities that make the resource base. By not doing any logging in the forest, we handicap ourselves with dangerous, no mobility jobs - having shut down a viable private sector timber industry. No - the forest cannot be run on the cheap while we spend our dollars on guns and butter. By volunteering our time and patience, we are only enabling the grubbermint to tax us further.

But without wishing to tax the resource
, which really does need work, what would you suggest we do, locally? The 40-50 year old stands need to have the density reduced for forest health reasons and the feds managing the land should come up with Davis-Bacon wages and full benefits to pay for it, rather than these flimsy stewardship partnership that puts the local community at risk and feeds most of the dollars to the federal treasury. The feds need to get the job done, or get out and let us do the job.


December 06, 2005

howdt doors in Tiller

stewardship contracting will become a partnership mechanism for community cooperation in getting work done on the forests. there is a backlog of thinning that needs to be done in second growth forty year old stands. creative uses for small diameter wood that control transportation and labor costs require high value products to be extracted, or at a minimum a sequential use of resource to the highest valued outcome. a local electrical co-generation plant may be the viable last alternative, or a bio-mulch land additive. much room for innovation.

while up in the Tiller ranger district of the Umpqua National Forest, i had to pull out my digital camera and enjoy the scenery.




When?

seconds
minutes
moments
hours
days
weeks
eons
months
years
decades
eras
centuries
ages
millenia

(c) 2005 lemme howdt

Why people don't get science

Old science texts are highly descriptive of properties of materials, Today's science texts contain theories of matter and energy, but very little description. Observation first hand often does not correspond to what is written in the book. But - nothing written is an obvious falsehood - or even a deliberate falsehood. We just need to go back and check premises. And be in touch with reality, which doesn't quite ever fit theory.

December 05, 2005

papa dont preach

was i the only person that caught the irony of biographies of Ayn Rand and Madonna superimposed on LewRockwell.com? having read Atlas Shrugged thrice, and aging thru life with madonna, i would suggest that both are in my top five female entertainment superheroes - altho i do not idolitize. (joni mitchell, martina navratilova, grandma treetoad)

what these women share is the discipline of focus. They live life walking the walk that goes with the talk. Life is filled with disappointments and successes - neither one lasting long enough to make significant difference, unless you work at it. The self discipline to be overfocused on living in the world you create, rather than the world where you're told what to do. For women, this is even more of an accomplishment than for men because of the history, not because of the ability.

drawing the most out of your own ability will allow you to get to where ever you choose to go. Allowing others to superimpose their control system is an active point of personal weakness. No fault judgement intended - just that you cede to a higher power the right to tell you what you may/may not do.

Notice that the people that pass really good information, generally know what they are talking about. They tend to do their homework and continually gather new information that pushes the borders of the field of interest. Then they tell people about it search for someone to prove them wrong. If nobody can ...

order and chaos are yin/yang concepts. but physics suggests that order requires work effort and everything left on it's own goes toward chaos. putting in the work has to be done somewhere, but the return from that work is a reward that only you can determine for you. If it is not worth the effort - listen to other people tell you what to do. But sit down, shut up and stop griping about it. Otherwise, get out there and do some work.

but what is work? it's what you do with your time. if you trade it for money, you get money to spend on things you wish to acquire. If what you wish to acquire doesn't cost money, then why chase money? value is not necessarily money, although money is hopefully always of some value. Except soon, here, it might not be. i am certain that the scheme predates ponzi by quite a bit - he just did it with memorable flair.

dr. lenny is a chemist philosopher educator (bard?) with interest in natural resources. youth are a natural resource. why our education system has decided to enslave youth rather than invest in youth is beyond me. Pay attention to things - all things must change - you can only change things you have control over - you control your own time - decide what value your time has and put it to use, anticipating change. Do not expect people to teach you, unless you are willing to learn. Find a mentor and set up a time for time trade. Then find a mentee and set up a time for time trade. Become an intergenerational conduit of knowledge in an area of your interest on a personal level. Only you have the power to make yourself a natural resources - it depends on how much ownership you have of your own world.

Both Ayn Rand and Madonna built the world around them in the image that they wished it to be. You can too, but only with self-discipline and a work ethic. (this sermon was much shorter than john galt's speech)

December 04, 2005

This morning

It is not often that dodson butte is covered with snow, clouds and more clouds, but this is the view that i have howdt the kitchen window every morning when i get up. The best things in life are free.

December 03, 2005

congress speaks our language

i visited with my congress critter today. it was a meeting of conservationists and he talked our language. when he visits with timber folks he talks their language. when he visits with middle of the roadies, he talks middle of the roadie language. congress critters are very good at being consistent in telling us what we want to hear, so that we keep voting for them.

i tried to get him to talk about the california congress critter mr. pombo, who chairs the resources committee, but the press was in the room filming at the time and the chances of saying anything significant went down accordingly. problem is two-fold - one - only one dr. paul exists: two - the seniority system encourages communities to keep their own pet critter in, as long as he strokes our fur and speaks our language when he talks to us.

one practice that has to stop - the lobbyists often write the legislation and the congress critters don't even vette it. lawyers control all the doors to the process, coming, going and sideways. at least our congress critter is on our side. (since we can't clone dr. paul yet, or can we?). i will say i heartily approve of the co-sponsorship of the bill to preserve our access to vitamins and supplements - big plusses. 10 terms : majority chairmanship 2006? (D-OR) hmmmmm

Onestop NewsHoovering

Really enjoyed vacuuming in information during the morning read at lewrockwell.com this morning. Bill Bonner first with the normal whimsy, followed by Justin Raimundo of Anti-War taking on the Cato, and this description of the way it is from Mike Rozeff. Join the gang running the state or be left out in the cold.

dr. lenny is a firm believer of wisdon through the ages and the wise Harrison stated that All Things Must Pass. I always took that to be about constipation, and i see that some things never change. But most do and the handwriting is on the wall. (And i didn't even get to the classic murray interview yet.)

December 02, 2005

Individual Accountability Assessment

If you play your cards properly and wait peacefully for your turn to come, you will still be waiting when they place you into your grave. Tomorrow, my local congress critter comes to town and just happens to be a captive audience for me to badger during a 3.5 hour program. Being that i just can't help being a curmudgeon, i'll have to inquire about what really goes on the the hallowed halls of congress, and why congress is the notorious opposite of progress.

A few questions: How come we are still in Iraq? Can we dispense with overlapping jurisdictions by reducing the number of unconstitutional federal agencies? How can the homeland be secure if we can't control the flow of people over our borders? Why is there a drug war? Would you please join Ron Paul's liberty committee.

Hopeless - I'll probably get the chance to chat, but the PC of the crowd will delineate the flavor of my comment - this is home turf, i'd like this seat once it is abandoned by this incumbent running for his 10th term. Must make nice. Must make nice. Must make nice. why, it's all crap and all falling apart. Must make nice ...

December 01, 2005

Creative Reality

generalists
suppose they know
a bit, a bit about
everything en bloc
specialists
suppose they know
a bit, a bit about
nothing in particular
human scaffolding
prefers general specialists
over special generalists
in most historical settings

charletains come in
every flavor of rainbow
professions usurped by
quihotes chasing controlled
miasmatic chaotic windmills
releasing pent frustration
collapsible media of exchange
begets value based segregation
of entertainers from clowns
and wheat from chaff

2005 lemme howdt

Diplomacy

As Doctor Lenny perceives the world, tribes are making their way back into vogue. Over-stuctural meltdown, along with completely different planets of communication between urban and rural folk have led to a baffling dichotemy. Statists represent very few of the people, yet everybody by some covenance expects that their (statist) rule of law protects them(us), from any perceived minor grievance as long as we play by the rules. Who's rules?

I recall a period where it was said that ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking the law - how in the world are we supposed to know what we are responsibile for when we can't even begin to define the over-lapping jurisdictions that we live under?

In order to retain the freedom of liberty and the constitution to progress forward, i now accept the title of diplomat, from the sovereign state of Zonia. Henceforth, Dr. Lenny represents the Zone in the pursuit of knowledge, wherever that takes us. For this afternoon it takes us into a Salinity Zone. At 12:55 pm - we will hold a salinity research group encounter in the lecturehall of the on-line school enrichment network. Connect through the link to Dr. Lenny's office. It is 9:55 am - we start in 3 hours.

Doctor Lenny strongly endorses the candidacy of Dan Hern for Douglas County Commissioner. Since Dan is a personal aquaintance that I have known for 10 years and seen in action working for the community, Doctor Lenny feels comfortable with withdrawing from the Douglas County Commissioner race. So the employment line on the resume can read former candidate, and currently diplomat, philosopher, research chemist, educator, poet and all around nice guy. (yeah right: lemme) this does not constitute any party endoresement - dan is welcome to represent the party party if he wishes to affiliate.

November 30, 2005

Tanks : A Bio-oil revolution begins

We were able to acquire large tanks to store bio-oil. The logistics of getting them loaded on to trailer and hauled to our facility were entertaining. We appeciate the help from a number of different parties in making all the pieces come together. Now we need to create the filling for the tanks.

EH - 49 Grass Roots Education

Yeah, right - like such a thing exists. Lynn Stuter gives a fanciful point of view on how your tax dollars are leveraged, to provide education services that are 'necessary'?

November 29, 2005

Suspicious ?

Since conspiracy theories are again filling the airwaves, i would like to point howdt that Steve Jackson Games Illuminati is a tongue in cheek look at the world through the perspective of the Orbital Mind Control Lasers, who control the mad scientists that are helping big media with the aid of the mafia taking over the international communist conspiracy. All for a dice-roll under ten. Fnord.

At one point in time Flying Buffalo Inc. , a play-by-mail game company had a version of Illuminati where players could turn in their move every other week and wreak havoc on twenty-three anonymous other players. Great fun. Watch out for the Boy Sprouts, especially if they try to control the CFL-AIO.

November 28, 2005

EH - 48 signal to noise

"The news is a measurement of history where the frequency of sampling the signal is at such a high frequency as only to perceive the noise."

When Katz praises Bonner in on today's morning paper : LewRockwell.com : He drifts into Dr. Lenny's field of measurement. Engineering and science are intermixed to produce technology, but basic science is pure noise - the signal died. There is perhaps the ability to resusitate pulse, but not in the real world of value defined by the current state of the art. There is no money in developing theory, when it cannot be placed into immediate practice. There is no patience to develop things of worth, when people are looking to spend the value of anything generated for immediate consumption.

So - if we pull the plug on this v43.2 of amerikkan history - where shall we reboot to? 1913? 1777? Zero? Can we have a meritocracy instead of a aristocracy of barristers and their cronies? Ben Franklins's words " if you can keep it " continually spring to mind. Time to figure howdt a new gameplan.

November 27, 2005

one-way relationship

down, down
down off a duck
a feather pillow
sneezes meezes
down, down
she forgot
selectively?
intentionally?
who knows
who cares
not the same
standing by... ...
no one home
quick disconnect
away we go... ...
to la la land
surrounding self
with delusion
to believe
her to be
something
she is not

(c) 2005 lemme howdt