Saturday, August 27, 2005
ONE MORE TIME There is one invention I've waited to see come forth over the years. When are we going to see automobile, truck and aircraft tires made from recycled plastic materials? We see other products coming into the market place at regular intervals which have proved to be successful and I wonder when we are going to make tires for all of our fine array of wheeled vehicles ...bikes, wagon, and carts for kids; roller skates, golf carts, ATV's, lawn mowers, farm equipment, roller skates, golf carts, and all cars, trucks and every bus as well as super-cars for the race place. It must have come to me along about the time we really started to take recycling seriously and began to return or stash away at home all of those handy plastic bags from the food markets that I realized what was being done with them. Shoppers, commonly thought they were being “melted down” and refashioned into more shopping bags – of a different, darker color each timer around. Not so. The neat, sturdy and corrosion and rot proof posts, poles, gates and pylons nearby farmers were buying and installing were of recyled plastic bags. The new flagpole down at the High School or at the V.F.W's war memorial site might be, plus your local garden shops flower pots,urns, holders and decoration. The new in your pathway are more likely to be of recycled plastic than of rare slate. I realize that manufacturing is not always as simple as it may seem and there may be very sound reasons for not developing vehicle tires of such materials.On possible reason may well be at concerning overheating of materials in such stringest use. If such a problem exist it should be made public so that others may work in solving it. To cast the potential of such a source of needed equipment aside because it might prove too costly, or that it might disruptive to present marketing strategies is unwise. Physical properties of the materials developed may vary greatly, but those qualites desired can be, in time, strengthgened and made more practical. It is quite true, I must admit, that solid rubber tires and others which were solid but with two-inch openings all around and throiugh thebody of the tire to allow the surfaced of the tire to relax - plus many versions of a modified surface - did not catch-on with the buying public when they were available in the past. It is obvious that we still need lab work and studies as to the problems which may be involved, but to keep the concept under lock and key is not the best way to go about advancing the product. Who, if anyone, is working on such a use of plastic for automotive and other tires? Why don't we ever hear anything about such a project? A.L.M. August 27, 2005 [c402wds]
Friday, August 26, 2005
FRAGMENTED NATION Have we become a nation of fragments? Some very serious writers were very much concerned back in the 1980's about the nation being divided into regional and sectional units. People in the entertainment industries were among the first to react to such change From 1975 into the '80' television viewers were watching the three major TV networks 93 per cent of the time. That figure dropped to 63 per cent in the decade. You were watching such shows as “The Honeymooners”, “All in the Family” and other such well-done shows” but all that changed suddenly with the advent of cable systems, TV tapes, and the first of the computer games. Viewing habits changed radically as program quality fell. They all retain swatch of old shows today and re-runs are endemic. Technical innovations hit us in unexpected ways, too, such as the long-distance telephone business falling into ruin; the Gulf War, in attention of Interstate Highway maintenance and replacement or enlargements as needed. Train travel more or less died; air travel changed radically with unknowns being featured - even favored, new lines, small airlines grabbed a slim-profit routes. Union hazards continued as a serious problem. The problem stemming from uncontrolled illegal immigration is causing “local” problems and I read of it happening in all sections of the dividing nation. I feel this is the most important of all the problems in which we are currently involved. It will prove to be a major problem we are going to have to face eventually. Do you agree that we are , as a nation, fragmenting? Breaking up? Falling apart? Take a few moments to thread through the warp and woof of our changes in what we loosely call “life styles” , our religious beliefs and our patriotism. Have we lost a sense of belonging? I think we have good reasons for concern. A.L.M. August 26, 2005 [c324wds]
Thursday, August 25, 2005
EXILE: UP TO DATE
I experienced a sample of what it must be like to find oneself to be totally exiled for a night and the better part of the elongated next day. Our computer ”died” yesterday or gave every indication of having done so.
It just sat there in its comfortable niche and stared back at me without the least glimmer of recognition or any sign of ever having had any association whatsoever with me or any glimmer of recognition or concern. The mood of the moment equated quickly and with somber certainties assuring me that a demise of some sort had taken place in the area. I suddenly realized that I did no longer sensed the flicker of tiny lights over there, up above or down there below in superficial ad-on regions. A dramatic zone of absolute quietness closed in all about my agitated body.
I should have known it was coming. The printer had be “acting up” for several days, kicking out a blank sheet now and then. It's off to on side in he particular setup we enjoy here it runs pretty much own as long as it feed good paper. It stops if slighted and it makes a tire-skid noise when it tries to spit out an indigestible piece of parchment. Printers are quirky,I've been told, and it is common sludge-talk that if you are having printer trouble you can expect to have more of it elsewhere. The family car, maybe; the dishwasher - but not the family computer.
I insist something happened. I walked away from last night feeling small. I returned to the site of the event after breakfast having prepared myself with words my computer-guide-son Andy Jr. always tells me when computer problems arise. “Remember, Dad, It's only a machine!” With that in mind I started checking out what it was supposed to be doing and, suddenly it was.
This afternoon I have also decided that computers and printers are events-oriented, as well. They seem to emulate thunderstorms which coincide so well with planned picnics or follow so closely on car washings/waxings. Our day or so of communications exile happened a day or two before a group from our extended leave for a pare-school steeping in sunshine, sea water and sand a Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. That means e-mail and pictures sharing the land of the Wright Brothers and of other such notable persons such as Blackboard the pirate who once frequented those waters.
A.L.M. August 25, 2005 [c435wds]
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
FROM THE SKY Look upwards! Think for just a moment of the myriad wonders which have come to us from above. The beauty of the stars so endlessly prolific, are, perhaps, foremost of the wonders Man can observe and know, in a general sense. I have been that Man, viewing them from Earth can see about six thousand individual stars with many clusters distinguished as a single points of light. You have, no doubt, witnesses such a sight and wondered what the ultimate intent of it all might be. We, it appears, are not yet ready to know about such things. It does serve, however, as an avenue by which we might seek to learn of the immensity and boundless dimensions of the overawing Will of God the Creator, maker and constant mender of it all. We, in this age, have more reason than Man has every had before to learn about the space around us because we have been allowed to reach out and actually touch some of the material portions of the cosmos. We have become more and more aware of what might the heavens might hold which will be special interest and concern. Now that we “been there” -in a very limited sense - we are, I feel, on the very edge of finding out what it might all mean for our future... if, and there are conjectural potentials contained in all of this, for we must show we can handle it properly. All of this may be compared to that point in the history of Mankind at which he discovered “fire”. How our space learning may best be used might determine which way we go. We might make a proper choice, and we, as has been done before, might select a pathway which will not only mis-use the advantages we have at the moment but to utterly waste them. It is entirely possible that we, so intent as we seem to be on merely getting along with each other. Our wars and social, political, and religious fixations place our true future in grave jeopardy. A.L.M. August 24, 2005 [c358wds]
Monday, August 22, 2005
THEY DIDN'T BELIEVE ME! Just last week,when I was talking with a small group of young people they did not believe me when they heard me say that when I was kid their age we used to back the family car up They refused to accept my statement. There a short silence; then muffled confusion. My grand-daughter Lucy, present and alert as usual,cleared her throat rather loudly and when she knew she had proper attention stood before me as if ask a favor of me. Then,loud enough to be heard by everyone present,she assumed a swami-like tone of voice we all heard her say: “Oh, ancient, wise one - would you please tell us why in the world you felt you had to back your cars up when you came a steep incline in the road?” She handed them to me attentive and warm and I took over quickly by citing the location of the specific hill I had in mind in the City of Radford,Virginia. A “city” by reason of a law which allowed any town counting a total of five thousand citizens could call itself a “city”. It was part of U.S. Route ll just inside the city from the Pulaski County side of the New River. Much of city five miles length is built on numerous levels which have been carved down the valley over centuries. Then, as the oldest river on the North American continent it took its time carving a series of wide levels along the edge of rocky cliffs forming the other side. Much of central Radford is built on these natural levels. At that time – l924 – U.S.11 entered Radford by crossing the river bridge and heading up the first hill to the initial street level. Route 11 traffic incoming made it up the short hill to First Street. If the city's only, street car - Number ll – happened to be stopped a that corner travelers waited for east-west traffic before heading upward another level. This unpaved,though generously graveled, road was bounded on one side by a wire fence ;on the other by an overgrown hedge and a footpath. The grade was steep and the final fifty feet - even steeper. Some cars never made it never made up the hill by normal methods. There was a side street at the bottom of the hill. The stalled car drifted back in to that side street parking area. After re-starting the car - not always easy after a choke-out – it was headed downhill and backed up the hill with no trouble at all. It doesn't happen now. Our 1924 FORD Touring Car had its gas supply stored under the diver's seat and gas flowed by gravity through a small line to the engine ahead. A.L.M. August 20, 2005 [c477wds]
Sunday, August 21, 2005
TRIAL BY QUESTIONS? Have you ever asked yourself if there has even been such a thing as a perfect crime? I think we could ask that question of just about any one and get affirmative replies all along the way, because it is one problem which everyone has wondered about at one time or another. It is a bit of speculation which has lured some people we have known to try to see how it works in real life. I say “No.” I don't think there can be a perfect crime and here are some of my reasons for thinking that way. First, must set up some ground rules for our discussion. Is that agreeable with you? Fine. If we can agree just what make a crime a crime we are well on our way. We all tend to make us a wide variety of terms to describe crime. Would you agree with me on such a definition which, i think, has all the simplicity and directness needed: Crime is...“an offense against society.” Doesn't that pretty well cover the entire subject in a simple straightforward manner? O, thus supplied with a simple definition which seems to meet with general approval, let's continue to examine the possibility of someone committing perfect crime. Shall we start with just a small one, perhaps -a theft. Will that do? We can save major embezzlements and murders until we get our rules firmly in mind. A person or person has, we find, stolen a valued watch, some jewels and a secret formula for an unknown product. We heard about this morning, but it happened a month before on the very night the owner had left for a business trip to Peru. The incident was unknown until the owner returned from South America. It was the moment she relayed that vital information to someone else that the act – a month old – became a crime. That was when it became an offense against society. It was discovered - which indicates it was imperfectly planned or executed. The crime was never solved. Had the owner died or been killed in Peru the stolen goods would not have been known to have existed. Once a crime known to be an offense against so society it exhibits a weakness – a flaw. There can be no such thing as a perfect crime. A.L.M. August 20, 2005 [c402wds]
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