August 31, 2006

An Advertisement for Sigh Entz Zone

Have you ever had cause to wonder? Asking the question why is essential for understanding how things work in a mechanical science based world. Scientists use Chemistry and Physics, Biology and Mathematics to ascribe properties and count organisms. The measurement of what we have is essential to proper application of management.

Opportunities to do math and science in a school environment are limited to 45 minutes between the bells, including set-up and break-down. Hardly enough time to punch the buttons and get a number. But in depth measurement needs to be the focus of science education – which is where you find Redile.

Research Directed Learning Environments are places where students and the average joe can find solace in good measurement. The Science Zones are experiences where students and mentors can share enthusiasm for a narrow technical field. Based in the natural resources of the Umpqua Valley, the Oregon Natural Resources Research Institute provides access to equipment and expertise for students interested in becoming hands-on outdoors.

Science Zones focus on aspects of natural resource measurement – in Forestry beginning with maps and compasses and graduating to clinometers and relaskops. Students and mentors share the learning experience based on a protocol currently used by a land management agency. People will learn how to speak the language and use the equipment, based on following technical protocols.

Redile also focuses on Water Quality, using chemistry to monitor biology. ONRRI students have participated in biological surveys of amphibians, mollusks and macro-invertebrates: salamanders, snails and bugs. We play with little kids in parks at Creek Week and big kids in parks like Twin Lakes. The OINKS (On-line Interactive News Kasts) detail events of interest to naturalists and other readers at http://www.schoolenrichment.com/lecturehall/


To be part of the first classes - Average Joe Chemistry or Chemistry for Teens - contact Dr. Lenny at lenny@redile.org . Local Douglas County folks may qualify to have tuition picked up under a grant from our sponsor :-)

August 30, 2006

Avoiding real work

Guess this blog just insn't going to happen the way i wish it to - but that seems to be the way with everything anyway. There is no market for invisible services - you must put up or shut up. The problem is that everybody is shut up, hiding from their fears and ignoring reality by lashing out at other people, as if they were the problem. Truth is, they are.

We all seem to be a problem for other people to deal with, constrained by a system that has become an end all everything. If I have something to provide in a different format - i can place it out onto the marketplace of ideas. But when that marketplace is totally controlled, the value system of price is not legitimately set. There is nowhere to gain market to share ideas, but at the liocal community level. So if there are no local community ideas being generated, since all the dictates these days come from DC - standards, regulations, certifications and triviality - without many of the costs being borne - (ah but they are building roads - why when gas is becoming too expensive to use?).

Reading this morning ahead of writing my task has given me a different perspective - everybody wants a law to pertain to everybody else but them - but nobody is willing to pay, except off the booty that they seize. So high profile targets beware. The economic gurus are all screaming about an inverse yield curve - when they all scream and predict the same way, they are generally suffering from group think dilusia - but mebbe not this time. remember the song from Oliver - food glorious food. Perhaps too prophetic. Gosh darn that Dickens dude.


August 29, 2006

Thyme Howdt

The challenges in life sometime require that time off is necessary from the daily routine. Installing a DSL service line with a one digit off IP address kept me off-line from this comfuser and away from a daily blog. In the interim - i have been contemplating and now plan to do some thing slightly different. The change you wish to see is the change you need to be - eh M.G.?

The realm of kahbala, mer-ka-ba and sacred geometry integrates symmetry and chaos in a manner that i find fascinating. Rather than upsetting equilibrium by paying screed to the fictional fiascos of the daily world, i will be devoting my time to applying the mathematics of measurement to the objectivity (heh, heh) of conventional science, though a depthful approach to life in social evolutionary terms. The Ghandi's and Paulings of the 1960s have traded places with the Aarons and Seavers of my youth and baseball is reality - peace and conflict the side game.

Both science and sports integrate numbers as performance measures - let's teach and learn the way we live - in cooperative competition with each other to excel at what we do, when we choose to do it. The natural ebb will return - things gravitate to the mean and the pendulum does swing backward.

In this sphere, i do not have time to pay attention to the lateral drollness of political ramifications - i will not bother with national news and political events. Instead i plan to tap into people as individuals and empower directions of study, in an area where work and time are rewarded by effort and energy. Peace can happen, by not playing the war game. If you want to be part of measuring - we shall soon get there...


August 22, 2006

What is unique?

In this cooperative competitive world, unique sells. Everybody looks for the look that makes them stand howdt in a crowd. To demonstrate that you as an individual are a cut above the rest. In a horizontal hierarchy, the unique would stand alone for its own merits - since there are no cuts above or below. Or are there?

What is unique - the individual item that makes out different, or the act of being different and not 'caring' what other people think? You have to come from a place where it makes sense to you to come from. Dr. Lenny's world is unique because challenge is relished and different is what every day is about. I can plan far ahead, but plans are always subject to change as a moment comes when opportunity meets preparation.

Most Zoneheads have unique skills or talents - something to tell other folks about. We share of ourselves in these blogs and relish common experiences with others who do the same things that we would like to do. If the pictures here make you feel like you can be howdtdoors - book a trip and come visit - i like to show folks around. I also like to collect unique people, individually. People who enjoy being on the wavelength that i grok on.

So now, i have a unique opportunity and i feel like a surfer that has created the image of the wave and suddendly has the ride of life show up at the door. I will OINK adventures and provide for real people to teach the unique skills that we have to others, so that we have people along for the ride as you enjoy the roller coaster of life. I grew up in an amusement park - bread and circuses is a game that plays well. But if there is real substance beneath what you know that is worth sharing, then by all means come along and play this game, because the donkey is saddled up and the surfboard is like the bus in speed (with keanu and sandra).

August 20, 2006

Spring River

Spring River from headwaters to mouth on the North Umpqua is a mile and a quarter long. Originationating at over 3000 ft near Lemolo Lake - part of the north Umpqua Hydroelectric Project, this pristine river may be the shortest River in North America. Dr. Lenny went hiking yesterday and took a few photos - Headwaters, up river and down river from destination lunchspot and a lichen (16X) growing on a pine cone (lodgepole).

Also ran into a fire crew doing thinning work aside the road - this area is very overdense and the work creates fire breaks - places that are wide enough to separate tree crowns and lessen the chance of fire crossing the line. Was impressed thatthe crews weren't out fighting fires - that means that the season is not too bad here - knock on wood.



August 18, 2006

lemmingness

elementary
my dear whatsit
back down 2
simple principle
what is, will be
coast easily
thru fluff of life
$ grow on trees
$ dump via
helocopter
trade as value
in valueless
whirled
redistribution
while work folk
contemplate
naval navel.

(c) 2006 lemme howdt

August 17, 2006

Creek Week Water Chemistry

Today the group measured dissolved oxygen in the creek. Each of the kids got to do part of the digital titration, and we measured between 4.5 and 5.0 mg of dissolved oxygen in twelve measurements over 4 samples. We also measured increasing temperature through the morning and a pH around 8.0. Conductivity was about 10 microsiemens.
The creek is a slow running creek, but the dissolved oxygen is quite low. Seeing as how we didn't get that many macros on Monday, the low oxygen content might mean that the bugs have headed for more fruitful places.


No Urgency - Creek Week continues

Now that it is toward the latter half of August, people seem to wish to do everything thay haven't done yet this summer, this week. Dr. Lenny - being a disbeliever in following the crowd - has been spending mornings at Creek Week - where he was the featured speaker on Natural Resources yesterday. His take for the day was map-making and we drew maps of the park where we have the creek week events. It is interesting to note the levels of accuracy in the drawings - but the legend and artisite signatures were on every page. If you can't be howdt enjoying the outdoors, then i'll just have to do that for you and blog back the pix. Virtual reality has absolutely nothing on little kid reality. just ask layne.



August 15, 2006

Creek Week Geek

Dr. Lenny gets to be the nature expert for Creek Week - were 4-12 year olds learn who does what, when where and how. Monday had me teaching about bugs in the stream - fish food. Playing outside with little kids is great fun - volunteer to get howdtside. You'll find a whole new world to discover. Sometimes it gets buggy.



August 14, 2006

evoking change

frustrated again
ramp up the war
whatever circulates
internally discombobulates
resources drain away
time lost in losing time
preparing for a future
that will never arise
desire trumps logic
as spiral pirouettes
impending apocalypse
self-fulfilling prophesy
change is a thought away
that thought seems far off
...
love fosters desire to breed peace
peace discovers workable harmony
harmony yields opportunistic wisdom
wisdom undergrids need for compassion
compassion follows search for truth
truth found promotes love to all
...
whatever caused frustration
is an age, a proper path away
to do is to do and to be is to be
go forth as an agent of change

(c) 2006 lemme howdt/vemora spardu

August 13, 2006

Imagine

If this was beirut, would the scene be very much different from the local area? Top picture taken this weekend about a mile from my home. It was a controlled demolition, but then again, so is ordinance. War is never as clean as being about good guys and bad guys. A paintball arsenal is so much better than real bullets - strategically the games rate about the same. Somehow, i get the impression that the folks in beirut would rather be taking paint than bullets.

Reflections

Give the other guy an Angstrom unit, and it'll be reported that you gave him a parsec.

L. Neil Smith covers a lot of ground in a series of one liners - i could not resist repeating the measurement based wit. Nod to Anthony Gregory at STR.

August 12, 2006

Getting a bit blatant here

Er - folks - who gave TSA the prerogative to confiscate sex toys as terrorist devices? Now they can rip off people and resell their goods? Perhaps somebody could point to the lines in the constitution that allow this? Apparently Pennsylvania has cut a deal to empower fedgov theft, nice. All decision making ability needs to be as local as possible. These are public servants - they shouldn't be able to do this. Really. PA residents - where is your outrage? Oh - desperate housewives is on tube, i see...

August 11, 2006

Activity

I have noticed recently that many people mistake physical change for progress. If you look at the things that need to get done and start activities to get them done, then gradually you wear away at the tasks and things start falling into place. If you wait around until somebody pays you to take care of business, then you are ill prepared to take advantage of new options that arise. Opportunity and preparation are two key aspects in luck - you need to work with all the puzzle pieces at the same time, when one fits, some others fall into place. Most people build the frames first because they need to think inside a box. My picture is a fractal that radiates from loci and different available entities are achieved by rotation with an economy of scale built into work. I can accomplish six tasks by doing one, if six people need the same task done. Wanna race on a 10,000 piece jigsaw? But to what end?

When i am stalled in one area - i move on to something else. Things go up on the shelf, ready to go and i move to start the next process, knowing that what is on the shelf is good to go, to the point where i have it. The shelf has many graduate level projects that only require an interest party to do some data mining and dig for information in a set of files, collated over many years. I have room for a few individuals who wish to learn to learn to come help pilot a set of projects - we have six, but we really need eight. A wild female with math or IT skills (lady astor - are you available for cloning?) would be an awesome fit. This is entrepeneurial for several different reasons, but if it catches your fancy - you can explore.

dr lenny has been a bee-hive of activity for about 5 years and the results are still meager. but the potential has grown from nada mas to what if ... And S. Oregon is a neat place to be.


August 09, 2006

August 08, 2006

Chemistry for the Average Joe

Well, Dr. Lenny is going to teach a class in how to interpret and speak the language of chemistry.

I need to test drive the mechanics of a new web-based teaching system, so this fall i will hold a nine-week 1.5 hr per week class where i talk about basic chemistry and how it relates to what you might read in the news media. The topics will cover Climate Change, Organic Gardening, Metals and Mining, Agriculture Chemicals and other natural resource based topics. Sign-ups will start soon, with the course beginning on Thursday evening September 14th.

We will attempt to have a live lecture on-line with a set of references to look up on-line. The focus is vocabulary and basic reaction chemistry for life - things that relate to the real stuff we do. Cost should come in under $100, although there might be some additional costs in arranging local availablity of lab facilities. This is a pilot run to see that all things are considered, i plan to run the class again later when all the technology in progress is ready, perhaps this spring, certainly fall '07.

Book Virus Thingie

One book that changed my life: I don’t think that any single book has ever changed my life. The first time I read Atlas Shrugged, I really needed some time off from everything – but it was coming down the pike for graduation from college. So I read rather than studied and then wrote a final comparing Rand with Machiavelli and Shakespeare and justified the time spent. Now I run with John Galt and Lemme Howdt.

One book I have read more than once: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is an ever other year occurance, unless we can get the BBC TV tapes, in which case it gets read immediately.


One book I would like to have on a desert island: The Nature of the Chemical Bond, by Linus Pauling comes to mind. Dr. Lenny can do anything with this text.

One book that made me laugh: I read Vin Suprenewicz book The Black Arrow right after I saw V for Vendetta and I rolled at the humor of the parellels.

One book that made me cry: John Knowles, A Separate Peace is the only book from junior high that even made a dent on me.

One book I wish I’d written: Foundation, Asimov’s epic trilogy that details history through the science of Hari Seldon. I marvel at Isaac Asimov and how much he knew about everything.

One book I wish had never been written: 1984. If Orwell hadn’t seen it coming, we might have a better excuse for not dealing with the real problem.

One book I’m currently reading: Seven Experiments that Could Change the World: A Do-It Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science by Rupert Sheldrake. This is Dr. Doolittle type stuff, really really cool.

One book I have been meaning to read: Tolstoy's War and Peace. I’m saving this for post-Armageddon.

Five bloggers to tag with this meme: Sorry, but I prefer not to play tag with this one, since it is fairly late in the game. Kudos to Vache and Sunni, and many other bloggers who bit.



form

as particles return
to wave form
wave form flows
flow form waves
things blow down
orientational rotation
causes balance problems
stress fear, fear stress
hiding behind the curtain
holding no one to task
cognitive dissonance
rattle of chattle
chattle of rattle
constructing structures
monuments to idols
fear stress, stress fear
pulling back the curtain
Oz mirage, little man
time has come to hold
responsible sensibly
lest things blow up
flow forms wave
wave forms flow
as waves return
to particle form

lemme howdt (c) 2006

August 07, 2006

off routine

i noticed that LRC was off-line this morning. My guess is that the powers that be have finally woken up to the fact that people get information off the net, so they will start making it as unreliable as possible. Just another withdrawl of value that is occurring as everybody grabs for their own little piece of the current pie. Let it go. Earth is a bake shop - there will be another pie baked later. This pie needs to be devoured howdt of existance, and our consumption rate will do it as soon as we realize that the monetary system holds no value. Watch them slink back to their protected areas and starve while the paradigm shifts and we wake up to the fact that the lies have gone on so long that we have to rediscover truth. i do that by reading LRC in the morning and today they're not there. Bad omen. Guess i'll just get my news from other sites. not that i really believe LRC, its just another spin that wraps the pooch in a different package. same pooch.

August 06, 2006

Blogging Philosophical

A good portion of blogging is reading and commenting at other people's blogs. The collections of blogs visited on a daily basis provides half the material that i reflect back to the people, who like to hear the far howdt opine on their topic. Typically i visit 15 - 20 blogs daily as i look for interesting little artifacts to collect, leaving hit and run commentary while spreading about my grand scheme of life. I score points for empowering others, i lose points for empowering myself, i gain points big-time by others empowering me. Points accumulate for no reason other than to keep score. The competition is a game to provide cooperation.

Using dr. jimmy boat philosophy : A rudder is to a person, as a philosophy is to a boat, i take the philosophy that i believe at the moment and live in accordance to its precepts. A recent book, the life of Pi, takes a playful look at an indian boy that practices hindu, moslem and christian faith simultaneously until the preacher brokers begin fighting amongst themselves over which he should choose. Both pi and i still do not understand why he should have to choose here at all. Common precepts allow one to observe in any format one wishes to observe in, but as einstein demonstated - the observer often places himself in the picture by the act of observing. i wonder if the non-omniscient observers had to age like dorian grey's picture, maybe they would quit jimmying the works. A philosophy is to a person as a rudder is to a boat.

Having said - the current philosophy is to live every day and be done with it. it can be the best of times or the worst of times, but it has been and today is another day. we were given one mouth, but two eyes and two ears. Observe, watch, measure and calculate prior to acting, when the timing is right. Seems to work for me, but stress is a mindblower. sort of like the concept of fear and its relationship to the litany of dune. Ah, Bartlebey is my sigh when i reach acceptance level for the things that i cannot change by my current effort, but i am the change i wish to see.

For this i can thank several folks - charles dickens, earl weaver, dad, frank herbert, herman melville and mahatma ghandi. and you, because i wouldn't spend the time doing this, if i didn't feel that we bloggers have the influence to change the world.

August 05, 2006

kerplop

crash go the chariots
ecosystemic overload
us racing like chicken little
with head lopped off
pretending wisdom without truth
being dismembered souls
hand wringing, ignoring action
perchance get up and do
wine rather than whine
if grape be ye dalliance
whereso rolling sleeves
indicating desire to assemble
inconcievable ability
focused on accomplishment
various tasks furthering
ability to enable morphology
living system cooperation
complete on level fields,
currently askew.

A short story: Deconstruction

This was created on-line and not edited - sorry if it has typos, but i wish to try an idea and it requires a one pass write. You the reader are welcome to provide a rewritten story, embellishing the literacy with-in my vein and i will gladly post such work. Consider it the theme of an Atlas Shrugged type tome - collective effort. Doctor Lenny

A tree grew in the forest. A small oak seed fell into an area where a chipmunk had dug a truffle and was covered over at the right time in an area where it would be free to grow. So it grew to be a mighty oak and birth several generatios of smaller oak that lived and passed during her seven hundred year lifetime. When the last gasp of photosynthesized life extinguished, the roots of the oak drew water no more.

If our tree was a human, we would have a wake, say a few prayers and bury her in the ground. A human might harvest our dead oak for firewood, but if nature be allowed to take its course, i shall continue this short tall tale. I will use some names for younger readers to untangle the yarn.

First to notice were the fun guys. Old mother oak stopped the sugar pump, so all the newts that the fun guys had piled were standing at the dock, waiting for daily trade. Just take the sugars and we'll sell our newts to the four age folks. Squirrels, mice, voles and other small critters turned mama's hulk into a thriving metropolis, so the fun guys could continually mine sugar from the roots and obtaining other perks elsewhere.

The birds found Mama Oak and wood peckers had created homes in the upper and lower cavities. Smaller critters found the holes, so more pock marks soon became more homes as years progressed. The Mos-N like ken in their own deconstruction roles, removes water and newts, allowing gaps for sugar breakers to convert mama's wood stores to powder. Beetle, Bug and Termite unions provide specialty acids to first peel off all bark, then rot through the heartwood, as everybody carried off precious water from the bonds that were briken in the mining process.

After 436 years of stability of habitat, a shrill wind caught the mama oak snag just right and she toppled to the ground - dragging down six other mature trees - an oak, two madrone, an incense cedar and two fruit trees (our squirrels were busy). The top broke off and bounced and the tree also split against the cedar a third way up, so three giant pieces lay in the ground and the rootwad with dirt was perced in the air.

No more birds, and no more upper story shelter for smaller critters. Larger critters expanded on the holes and feasted on the access to the internal treats hidden. The worms crawl in and out and over 250 years, mama oak melts down into humus soil and stuff that the fun guys can make a killing with. Different forms of second team pack-rats take positions and enhance the living conditions, while other for age folks find uses for branch parts and any salvagable good. The entire deconstruction of mother oak tree provides food, shelter and habitat for all sort of members of the guild.

American culture lasted 230 years since the hey-days of 1776. Let's take the next few years and plan for a rational deconstruction of the entity in such a way that we can maintain the forest despite the death of this tree. This analogy provides for a 230 year decay cycle - lets get started by ditching the Patriot Act and reminding the public servants that they work for us.


not an oak, but ...

August 01, 2006

why cry

The avoidance mechanism for deterring reality has significantly changed in the past month. The propaganda from the regime media no longer tries to justify a position of good vs evil - it is just assumed that you buy into the only definition. Lewis Carroll discussed the meaning of words very eloquently in Through the Lookingglass - it befuddles me why that confounded book of truth hasn't been banned and burned. Samuel Clemens has been replaced by Roger Clemens and never the twain shall meet the amerikan public. Time for liberty lessons - coming soon to a blogspot near you.

Water they doing

Water rights are regulated by people who have specific interest in profiting from the water distribution. Locally, our watershed council functions by consensus and works in the private sector to cover similar function of the soil and water conservation district - the SWCD described in the article. People are elected to serve on SWCD in mostly uncontested elections, and often are appointed by the existing members of a district when nobody chooses to run. Civics in action. Consensus is obviously not a concern in Colorado : this fits well with themes developed in the previous post. We the people are the government - public servants are servants, they do not rule the roost.

How to Nuzzle

When growing up, one of the magazines in the house was Business Week. Thanks to Ali at Strike-the-Root today, we can see that Business Week has changed modus operandi. This article tells small businessmen how to be a pig at the trough and how to battle for their share of government pork. According to the article, the government discriminates against small business owners by spending taxpayer dollars allocated for small business innovative research on corporate business. And they don't monitor the program, so you have to enforce their rules yourself. This is how you can get the thieves to use your skills and talents, rather than pay Halliburton more to get yet another job not done until the cost overflows run howdt. And how if you fall into the right niche, you too can spend $15K to earn a $17M contract. Glossy propaganda - but people buy this sh*t as though it were gospel, because Business Week was once a respectable dirtrag. Thanks again mass media.