So I’m off for a say of Zoo walks, lunches, and shopping with my sweetie-wife.
Author Archives: Bob Evans
I’ll post it, but I won’t forward it.
disgusted
So you want me to believe that the conservative resistance to the HPV vaccine is purely about ‘Parental Rights’, or concerns that our children are being over immunized? How naïve do you think I am? (I’m not even touching Michelle ‘Madman’ Bachmann’s Jenny McCarthy’s like idiocy.)
Let’s take a quick look at recommended immunizations for children according to CDC.
Chicken Pox –Air and direct contact vectors
Diphtheria – Air and direct contact
Hib – Air and direct contact
HepA – Personal contact, Food, Water
Hep B – Blood, bodily fluids
Measles – Air and Direct Contact
Mumps – Air and direct contact
Pertussis – air and direct contact
Polio – via the mouth
Pneumococcus – air and direct contact
Rotavirus – through the mouth
Rubella – air and direct contact
Tetanus – breaks in the skin
HPV – sexual activity
Only ONE of these immunizations has the conservatives in a lather, but I’m supposed to accept the premise that it’s NOT about the sex, but only a logical question of parental rights that somehow doesn’t get raised for any of the other immunizations? Yeah, right, and I’ve got some Unicorns to sell you.
If this was a fringe group grousing about the injections, sort like the fluoridation nuts of years past, I could ignore the whole issue, but these people are in the driver’s seat for the selection process for the presidential nominee. Leading politicians are bending knees and groveling to these idiots who believe it is better to risk cancer than sexual activity.
Things seem to be looking pretty good.
I have finished a new short story, the first in months. I have another edited and ready to send off to a market for it’s customary rejection. I’ve had two good conventions in rather short order and I have two more coming up the as many months, so I really have little to complain about. So I won’t.
This Sunday night I plan to go out to the drive-in theaters and relive that bit of childhood memory. (not teenager memory never had a car as a teenager and only went to the drive-in once as a teenager. By myself, on a bicycle, to see 1979’s Dawn Of The Dead.) This sunday will be a double feature of CONTAGION and APOLLO 18 for $8, hell you can’t beat that.
A very Good Weekend
This past weekend here in San Diego we had a fine little SF convention named Conjecture. Our Guest Of Honor was SF Author Allen Steele. This was a rather different experience for me than other local smaller cons as I was on five panels during the three days of the convention, three on friday afternoon and two On Sunday afternoon.
I had a blast. I moderated one panel and while my lack of knowledge on the subject could have doomed the panel, I had some great panelist, including Hugo award winning author Verner Vinge, and they saved my bacon. I must say that being on a panel in many ways is much more fun than watching a panel. When the odd idea or random connections occurs to me because of the conversation of the panelists I don’t have to hold back, or hold my hand up to offer a shortened thought, now I can speak my mind. (yeah I know that is a dangerous thing.)
Today I managed to get back into the swing of writing too. Nearly 1000 words on a new short story that I had failed to launch three times before. If I can get it into shape in time this one might go to the Writers of The Future now that I am no so mad at them anymore.
40 hour week? What’s that?
At my day job there is overtime stretching as far as a fa’sn ire at George Lucas futzing with Star Wars, again. (yes he’s doing it again. Apparently his plan is to make the original trilogy suck so badly that the newer ones don’t look as so bad.)
I’m doing 50 hours weeks and there literaly no end in sight. It’s impact my bank account, positively, and my writing, negatively. Still I’m up for it ’cause I love me money.
Drive-In theaters
A few weeks ago while surfing around local internet sites I discovered that San Diego has two still operating Drive-In theaters. I seriously had though all of those had died away in the era of THX Dolby sound, and crisp laser projections.
This lead me on a brief internet search about the state of Drive-in theaters. Surprisingly they have a devoted following who enjoy the low prices (in San Diego you can get a double feature of first run films for $8), family friendly atmosphere, and privacy of the private viewing from your own car. (No annoying people right next to talking during the film . I once dated a girl who talked through an entire film, never went out with her again.)
Then our of the blue light lightening on a clear day this memory popped up into my mind. As a child I often went with my older brothers to a drive-in movie on the weekend. I suddenly, and vividly, recalled the popcorn being popped in our kitchen, salted, buttered and put into a large brown paper bag. (they kind groceries came in before everyone went over to totes or plastic.) Teh bag then being stapled closed to kept it warm and fresh until the movie started.
I’m very tempted to relive this memeory. Pop the corn, bag it and go to a local drive-in. I’d be the adult and I’d be driving, but some part of me wants that experience one more time.
hmmm
Global Warming and particle physics
Late year I blogged about the habit of some AGW supporters using the term denier to denigrate their opponents. In that post I referred to the GCR hypothesis for global climate changed. In a nutshell it runs like this, GCR (Galactic Cosmic Rays) when present increase cloud formation, which reflects sunlight back into space before it get to earth, and this cools the planet. When GCR decrease, cloud formation drops and the Earth warms as more sunlight reaches the surface. The Solar magnetic field determines the amount of GCR reaching the Earth, so the solar magnetic field is a principle driver of climate changes on the planet.
The key here is cloud formation, a process not very well understood as the science not stands. The GCR theory is an outlier for cloud formation theory and as such the GCR aspect of global climate changes have been discounted by climatologist in general. (Note: I am not accusing people is hiding or ignoring evidence, some idea takes awhile to become accepted, provided the fact support them and they are falsifiable. To with look at the history of continental drift, once considered a crackpot idea.)
Well the GCR hypothesis for cloud formation has leapt over a major hurdle. The fine physicists at CERN have established with particle accelerators that GCR do play a major part in cloud formation. As current climate models all ignore GCR as a factor in cloud formation, and cloud formation is a critical element of climate modeling, the current models have the be redone. It is possible, perhaps even likely, that all of the climate change we have seen so far is due to increased GCR reaching the Earth as the solar cycle varies.
