Emergency Room Shock

It comes to us all, eventually.  You find yourself, with no warning, in the Emergency Room- dealing with a real, life-threatening, emergency.  Yours, or someone you love- the impact is much the same.

If you're not brain dead, you're experiencing it now.  The world financial system is steadily imploding, there's not one competent government left anywhere apparently (I used to think Canada- but...) and we seem to be staring into the Grand Canyon of life.

Looks like a long way down.

If there is any comfort to be had, it's this: people have survived this sort of thing before- and worse.  You can, too.

In the actual medical emergency room, that slowly dawns.  Now that the unthinkable has happened- what?  

Life goes on.

If you've already had your emergency room experience, you know- it's absolutely astonishing what people can survive.  And how strong some folks become, when it's required.

Hang in there.  

Sigh. Dick Van Dyke knew all about it.

Sorry.  More politics.  Sorry, RC, no guinea pics yet. The real problem there is that the guinea story is too important- so I keep putting it off, need to do it right.

Politics, on the other hand, is really very simple.  And very annoying at the moment.

I'm going to recycle a little essay here from- oh, 4 years ago.  Just substitute "Obama" for "Kerry" - and sometimes "McCain" for "Bush"- and every thing else is exactly the same.

sigh.

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Here's the thing.

The reason the Kerry campaign is so puzzled by their lack of traction is because they utterly do not understand what they are opposing; or what they themselves are doing. In spite of years of good political experience.

Dick Van Dyke had a brief variety show, I think, after his TV triumph with Mary Tyler Moore. He did a skit I saw, which with complete clarity illustrates the present problem.

Dick's guest star on one show was the current Heavyweight Boxing contender. So they had a skit about a match; between the boxer, an enormous, powerful, charismatic, black gentleman; and Dick.

The boxer boxed. Dick played chess.

I can see the skit quite clearly yet. They both got into the boxing ring; boxer in trunks, Dick in a suit. In the middle of the ring was a chess set, on a table, with two chairs. The referee gave them the rules; they sat down at the table. Dick looked intently at the chess men; and his opponent-- and boldly- made a chess move. The boxer looked briefly at the board; and Dick- then hauled off and clobbered Dick; knocking him across the ring and into the ropes.

Dick was very puzzled. Climbed out of the ropes; half-crawled across the floor to his chair; pulled himself up, sat down... and cautiously made another chess move. The boxer hit him again; harder; leaving him upside down and tangled in the ropes.

Whereupon Dick disentangled himself; crawled back to the chair... and made another chess move.

And the boxer hit him again.

I don't remember how the skit ended; I was kind of rolling on the floor at this point, at the brilliant absurdity. But you can see quite clearly the only possible end.

This is exactly what the Kerry folks are doing; and I don't think they realize it; or they'd start boxing a little.

The Democrats are hung up on logic. They nicely point out that x, y, and z; done by Bush and his gang, are not good; not sensible, and we should all do something else. Democratic voters all say, "Yeah, exactly! How can they not see it??"

The Republicans respond with primal chest pounding: "AMERICA!! FREEDOM!! LOYALTY!!"

Logical analysis of problems has NOTHING to do with this situation. Direct emotional appeals will trump logic every time, with many many voters. Finely tuned logic will indeed just make many of them suspicious. So; do we want to continue to preach to the shrinking choir; or actually reach some Republican voters? The Move On ads I've seen are usually particularly bad about this- they make Democrats feel good, and annoy Republicans. Hello?

Sigh.

Kerry could quite easily handle this. Stand up, and pound his chest back at them- and make a little fun of it all.

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I wrote that almost exactly 4 years ago.  Passed it around a bit; but I wasn't blogging then.

Please do pass this around if you find it of interest.  It's not- yet- too late.  Maybe.

Life is sweet.

Yes, it is.

In spite of all the hyper-abundant crap we carp about constantly.

We actually had frost last night- not a killing freeze, but very light.  Leading to a brilliant, crisp Autumn morning for Smidgen's first day of - pre-school.

Spice and I and Beelar, her big brother, walked her out through the apples to meet the neighbor who's sharing driving chores with us.

So, I got to wake up early; make some hot coffee on our woodstove, which kept us warm all night, burning wood from trees I planted myself (with Beelar's help) - then walk out, through apple trees (which I planted and grafted 25 years ago) drooping with fruit in spite of no real rain since June- (really) and watch two of my children together, taking a big step forward -

Spice went along with the neighbor, who has twins; and brought back this pic of Smidgen feeling her way into school- first day, first moments- with "her" twins on either side.

Worth a lot.  Worth remembering, that the good times, the good things, are still there; even when the worries and bad stuff keeps piling up.

Happy Autumn out there.

And the good news is...

Definitely in the "WHAT!!!!!!??????????" category.

According to the BBC - climate modelers are now reassuring us that Sea Levels will NOT rise - more than 2 METERS by 2100.

Oh, thank goodness!!  That's all right then.  The ocean will not rise more than 6 feet in our children's lifetimes.  (oh, and ours - I'm not really intending to check out for a good 30 years yet.)

This is good news.  Apparently.

Seriously- it's happening, far far faster than even crackpots like me were muttering.

Move away from the coasts- the sooner the better.  There are going to be millions upon millions of very unhappy refugees- oh, anytime now.

My brain hurts.

I'm assuming you're all familiar with the Monty Python skit.  It seems like the "WHAT!!!!??" events are piling up faster and faster these days.  Pick a subject, any subject.

I'm officially boggled, and will not attempt commentary at the moment.  I'm retreating to poultry.

Guineas are thriving; most are spending their days in free range conditions now; lots of details coming there.  Big news is; we're now attempting to integrate our birds- the teenage guineas, and the 1/4 grown chickens.  I moved 5 chicks from the brooder tub into the real world of the guinea pen just hours ago.

Primary response from both species seems to be: consternation.  "WHAT!!!???"

Hey, join the club.

Our Reality Free Press

I know you're all dying to hear the latest on the guineas.  Once again though, the headlines are driving me crazy, and you'll just have to suffer with me.

The big buzz, as the entire world knows, is that George McCain has chosen a woman as his Vice Presidential running mate.  Hot diggety!  Can we ever talk about that!

What is totally- and I meant totally missing from the world wide gossip orgy is WHY.

No, I don't mean all the crap and carp about what she's done and hasn't, who she is, what she professes... I mean the political reality.  Why did McBush choose a woman running mate?

There is a real, obvious, true answer- and I have yet to see it anywhere.

You can see the answer by looking at any news source, right now.  And stepping back just a tiny bit, to see the context.  The details of what they are talking about are unimportant- pretty much as usual.

Here's the critical- and obvious- question: "What is everybody talking about?"

The answer is "Not Obama."

And that's why.

McBush's choice, and timing, were indeed masterful.  Who Palin is matters not a whit- any chick would have served the purpose.

The presidential campaign was just about to be completely over; Obama was on the verge of wrapping up the election, right there.  100% of the press, 3 layers deep, was zooming around the Obama world, and 95% of it was "wow, this guy is hot! He's the real thing!  wow!"

And- at around 8 o'clock in the morning, the very day after Obama's recordbreaking tv speech (38 million people watched his speech- a big record- more than the Olympics...), when all the world was in a category 4 hurricane of analysis - and Obama's poll numbers were rising steadily -  McCain masterfully, totally, utterly extinguished the Obama "convention bounce".  

Within one hour of the announcement, Obama was off all headlines- all substantive discussions were over, and 100% of the buzz was McCain/Palin etc, and ooh, what does this mean?

Ok- RESTRAIN YOURSELF!!!!!!!!

If you're human- right now, you're thinking all kinds of rational thoughts, arguments, analyses- discussions- to rebut me, or answer me, or amplify me-

And your rational discussions and vehement answers have nothing whatever to do with the politics.

Exactly as the people over at TAE state, repeatedly- this has to do only with the very predictable behavior of herds.

After the convention- all us sheeple were mooving in the direction of Obamaville.  It was starting to be a stampede.  Really good job, Obama.

George McCain got in the way of the herd; shouted one magic herd word- (the equivalent of "Hooo-aaaahhh!") and the entire world herd changed direction.

All conversation, all thought, shifted from Obama directions, into McCain directions.  Stampede- averted.

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That- 100% - is why McCain chose Palin.  Nothing, zero, nada, to do with her being female, conservative, young, etc, etc etc.  She was very simply the most effective "Hoooo-aaaahh!" he had available.

And demonstrably- he was soo, so right.  None of even the mainstream "liberal" press types have picked up on that, or made any effort to avoid being so blatantly manipulated.  They could have made the front page half Palin; half continuing the Obama streams.  Think a second- was Obama still worthy of being considered news?  I sure think so.  (in a rational world... wild maniacal laughter...)

Nope.  It's...  THE MCBUSH CHANNEL!!!! --- All McCain- All The Time!

Your nicely reasoned arguments- are completely irrelevant at this juncture.  And McCain's advisors proved they know it.

Very nicely done, George.  You clearly understand how it works.

But apparently- nobody - nobody at all I can see - in the press - does.

sigh.

Back to my harvest, and herding teenage guineas.  They're slightly less predictable than this; more entertaining.

(don't worry, no more politics here- at least until the next time I just CAN'T STAND IT.)

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UPDATE 9/2.  For anyone still tracking this nonsense; this article in the NYT today is a better than average compendium, and contains this statement: "Perhaps more important, several Republicans said, Mr. McCain was getting advice that if he did not do something to shake up the race, his campaign would be stuck on a potentially losing trajectory."

Which is what I said- he was just about to lose it all; and had to do something noisy.  Validation!  Hah!  :-)

CIT claims to outsmart flies..

No, I'm not going to turn this into an animal behavior blog, though it's tempting.  But this one is irresistible to me.

Big headline in the BBC Science section: 

Fly's brain 'senses swat threat'

Researchers in the US say they have solved the mystery of why flies are so hard to swat.

Be still, my heart!  lol!!

If you'll read the brief article, you'll be amazed to learn that scientists at the world renowned California Institute of Technology have discovered- finally- that - who could have ever imagined- flies are AWARE of fly swatters!  

Flies actually- hard as it is to believe!- SEE them, and plan how to jump out of their way!!

Crikey.  Another huge international headline I could have had for myself- but failed to- because it's just so totally freaking obvious.

Anybody who has actually spent time trying to swat a pesky problem fly learns this- unequivocally- in the first 2 minutes of human-fly warfare.

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There is a REAL problem here, and this is a perfect illustration of it.  There is a class of scientist out there who claim, and believe, that we know nothing - if it has not been brought into a laboratory, and been proven in careful controlled experiments.

Thereby discarding tens of thousands of years of totally accurate and intelligent observations.

And - setting us back, in fact making us dumber than we were.  This is a growing trend in academia - find something really obvious and prove it.  Then publish.  Instant acclaim!

The upshot of this article is: 

"We've found that when the fly makes planning movements prior to take-off, it takes into account its body position at the time it first sees the threat," he explained.

"Our experiments showed that the fly somehow 'knows' whether it needs to make large or small postural changes.

"This means the fly must integrate visual information from its eyes which tell it where the threat is approaching from, with mechano-sensory information from its legs, which tells it how to move to reach the proper pre-flight pose."

So can this data make us more efficient swatters? Possibly. It is best to creep up on a fly with stealth, as they are unable to register slow movements.

When it comes to striking the blow, Professor Dickinson said it was a good idea not to aim at the fly's starting position.

"It's best to aim a bit forward of its location and try and anticipate where the fly will jump when it first sees your swatter," he explained.

If you can stop laughing- (gosh!  a fly is a functioning integrated organism??  no!!) - Professor Dickinson's advice shows that he actually has NOT experimented with fly swatting techniques.

My own advice on swatting flies?  Simple.  And based on years of vast swatting experience and experimentation.  And no, they are NOT  "unable" to register small movement- they just see it as not imminently threatening.  Watch the flies- it's obvious.

A fly "on the alert" for a potential swat is basically - frozen.  It's not moving- it's watching.  You move the swatter a millimeter- and it moves its body a millimeter-  but it can't keep doing that forever, can it?  Hard to find food if you're always on alert.

A really scared fly may stay on alert for a very long time (from the human perspective) - up to 30 seconds, or even longer.  That's too long for most fly-hunting humans' attention span- but it's not too long for the fly- whose life and entire existence depend on making the right response here.

Move your swatter slowly into a good position, without spooking the fly into flying.  Hold it there, without moving it.  Wait.  

At some point-always- the frozen fly will start to walk- or clean its face.  Whack it instantly, with no backswing.  Because just at that point- it is NOT on guard; it has decided that hovering threat is not a threat, and cannot - cannot- jump quickly out of the way.  The instant of change from "on high alert" to "not" - is a vulnerable point.  As the professor notes- later, while the fly is walking, grooming, etc, it is again more difficult to catch.

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Earthshaking information!  Aren't you thrilled!  The apocalypse has been averted!