Outside the Box
(thoughts for tomorrow)

UNDER CONSTRUCTION (perpetually)

A collection of drafts - crafty?

It's all relative
The big BANG
Dark Matter
American Society for Testing and Materials
Global warming?
Boeing 737 MAX
Flight TWA 800
A divided nation
Schmartz?
Social injustice
Give me money, money, money
2024 People of color
2024 NAG
Computer Weenies
Ths sky is not falling
Deep in the heart of taxes
HIPPA
The davidr DIET

2022 – It's all relative    [Return to Top]
There’s special relativity; general relativity; and simple relativity: The speed of light has relevance only with respect to a light source. So, the speed of light has no relevance in this equation: e=mc2: It is bullshit! It is merely a perversion of the formula for kinetic energy from 11th grade physics: e=ma2 where a is the acceleration due to gravity.

A strobe-light fires and photon A and photon B take off in opposite directions. Now imagine you’re sitting on photon A and looking back toward the strobe’s location and photon B. Can you see photon B? Of course not! All speed is relative. If it’s moving away faster than the speed of light you will not see it. If it is moving toward you faster than the speed of light, it will hit you before you see it. Anywhere between those 2 extremes enables human perception.

Gravitation is a property of mass. There is no gravitation associated with energy or the speed of light. The speed of light is limited but the speed of gravitational attraction is not. It has existed since the beginning of mass and will exist forever. There is no speed associated with it. It has nowhere to go because it’s already been there. However, general relativity suggests the speed of gravity is the same as the speed of light, and measurments seem to confirm this. But in science, there is never a final word.

A black hole is a Neutron Star on steroids. There are no elements or compounds; just neutrons, or protons and electrons, or just particles. When a black hole "blows" the particles assemble themselves into elements. The permutations and combinations are nearly endless. Good-by periodic chart.

But why that spiral of galaxies? Does it create apparent acceleration? The Coriolis effect? Stay tuned.

See 2018 Dark Matter below.

2021 – The big BANG   [Return to Top]
The BIG bang; 14 billion years ago. Conventional wisdom says that either there was no center, or at least no one has ever determined the center. But everything is moving away from us and in fact and it is accelerating. Hello, astrophysicists! Has someone thought to measure the velocity and acceleration in several different directions 90 degrees apart from each other? If there are differences, a center of the BIG bang could be inferred. If not, then the earth is at the center of everything, or some of our assumptions do not pass the logic test. Or were there many BIG bangs during endless time?

If we find the center of the Big Bang, we might be able to explain why the expansion of the universe is accelerating: If we assume the BIG bang left nothing at its center, we are in a quandary. However, if it left something less than nothing, negative nothing, that could explain the force expanding the universe. We could call it dark matter, dark energy, or even dark nothing. The universe is in space which is endless. That’s why there is a lot of matter (and gravitation) out there. It is has been proposed that dark matter is evenly distributed in space. Perhaps it is a property of space. If this is true, and classical matter originated at some point in space according to the Big Bang theory, then classical matter will be accelerating forever due to the pull of dark matter, until it fills endless space. And let's never forget: It's all relative, including speed!

See 2018 Dark Matter below

2018 – Dark Matter   [Return to Top]
For purposes of understanding, calculation, and explanation . . .

It is accepted that . . .

Size matters: The celestial distinctions are . . .

Dark matter comprises a very high percentage (80%?) of all matter (or perhaps a lot more?)

We need to discard (or at least question) the ideas that . . .

It is proposed that . . .

However, a theoretical absolute speed might be measured relative to the center of the big-bang. But that center has not yet been determined. Why?

Also . . .

Studies to estimate the proportion of dark matter’s small, massive, and super-massive bodies could be interesting.

The above propositions help explain . . .
Why the expansion of the universe is accelerating: It is due to the preponderance of far-off dark matter and its associated gravitational forces. We might even call it the acceleration due to gravity. Wrap your head around this: The universe is in space which is endless. That’s why there is a lot of matter (and gravitation) out there. It is has been proposed that dark matter is evenly distributed in space. Perhaps it is a property of space. If this is true, and classical matter originated at some point in space according to the Big Bang theory, then classical matter will be accelerating forever due to the pull of dark matter, until it fills endless space. And this discussion has come full-circle.


2022 – ASTM and global warming   [Return to Top]
The ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) has been around forever and has tests and standards for stainless steel, engine fuel and lubricants, dwelling performance, and thousands of other things. Years ago, I worked on one of their many committees. They have reacted to the global warming scenario with various standards including the following: ASTM E2137, ASTM E2173, ASTM E2718, ASTM E2725. (Noted below.)

They should be on the forefront of determining how to measure the average temperature of our earth. But I can find NO such ASTM standard. Are they leaving such all-important basic measurements to the vagaries of whoever decides to do the measuring? This seems to leave the door wide-open for the cherry-picking of data. Am I missing something? Maybe the media will sort it out!

For info . . .

There was so much trouble explaining how extreme cold spells resulted from GLOBAL WARMING, that global warming is now OUT: The term CLIMATE CHANGE has been adopted to obfuscate the confusion. Meanwhile . . .

Not a massive conspiracy, but possibly a lot of Lemmingism. A quick calculation suggests we add over 3 billion tons of CO2 per year by breathing! No one has proven that global warming is not a significant problem, but no one has proven that it is!

See 2016 Global Warming below.

2016 to ??? – Global warming?   [Return to Top]
Have you heard of the ice age? By some accounts there were five of them. Is the Ice Age here now? No! Proof of global warming. It seems clear that the earth has been warming since the last ice age. In fact, global warming likely has occurred five times.

Does man contribute to global warming? When we take coal, oil, and uranium out of the earth and use them to make heat, that certainly contributes to global warming. And that is merely the added BTUs not to mention any greenhouse effect. But does it matter? Is it statistically significant? And let's not forget that correlation and causation are 2 different concepts. By the way, did you know that you exhale carbon dioxide (about 4.5%) with every breath? Trees and plants thrive on it and "exhale" oxygen.

Do your part to banish that horrible pollutant, carbon dioxide, CO2: Stop breathing.

As an engineer, I can imagine that it must be tricky to measure the temperature of the entire earth today, let alone back 100, 200, or 300 years ago. Where I am, it warms and cools every day. It makes me wander!

It might be possible to measure (approximately) the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere today, but claiming that it the highest in 23 million years raises questions.

It must really be tricky to calculate atmospheric CO2 from minute quantities of hydrogen way below the surface of polar ice. Also tricky to calculate the age of the sample. Likely just as tricky to use that data to surmise the CO2 concentration for the entire earth. Has all this been independently corroborated?

By one account, we have warmed 2 degrees in the past 50 years. Let's assume that's Fahrenheit although they forgot to tell us. Here's one for you:
Is that 2 degrees out of 32 degrees or about 6%?
Is that 2 degrees out of 100 degrees or about 2%?
Or is that 2 degrees out of some other number like 1,000 degrees?
What do you think?

It is 2 degrees out of 460 degrees. What we call zero Fahrenheit is very arbitrary. It just happens to be where salt water freezes. It's obviously not really zero because there's a minus 5 and a minus 10, and minus whatever. How far minus does it go? It goes to minus 460 degrees F. Otherwise known as absolute zero. They never told you that. And there ain't no -461 degrees.

Like other things in life, breathing isn't that simple. What we breathe in is far from pure oxygen, but roughly by volume, 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.965% argon and 0.04% carbon dioxide (plus some helium, water and other gases). The gases we exhale are roughly 78% nitrogen, 15 to 18% oxygen (we retain only a small amount), 4 to 5% carbon dioxide and 0.96% argon.

Chemically speaking, atmospheric Nitrogen and Argon do not have a greenhouse effect. But water (vapor / i.e. clouds) can have a greenhouse effect. This gets complicated as pure vapor traps heat and condensed vapor (clouds) prevent heat gain by reflecting the sun’s energy. Nevertheless, without any exact calculation, the water concentration in the air is several thousand times that of CO2. Of course, the heat-trapping ability of water vs. CO2 needs to be investigated. Likely CO2 blocks more heat, but likely not several thousand times that of water. Conclusion: Confusion.

Even assuming that the measurements and calculations and assumptions are right, if the natural periodicity of climate changes is millions of years, what we are observing could be statistical “noise.”

Further, let’s not ignore the warming effect of the energy added to the atmosphere by electromagnetic radiation from radio, TV, cell phones, etc. These can warm atmospheric water vapor just as your microwave warms your food. Yes, it is being studied. Have you heard of it before?

And let’s not forget the (greenhouse) warming effect of methane, the product of organic matter decay and cow farts, that does not get burned. Nor the latent heat needed to melt (polar) ice while NOT increasing its temperature. And this brings us to the idea that “warming” is a measure of temperature which does NOT always run in lockstep with heat energy. Google: Specific heat. Heat is energy. Temperature tells us which way that energy will flow.

As a famous man once said: “Scientific infomation is run thru a “filter of ignorance” by the media.

Hope you planted a tree on Arbor day: They love CO2. They call it food. They keep the carbon and release oxygen into the air. This is called photosynthesis.


2019 April – Boeing 737 MAX   [Return to Top]
Emailed MCAS tip for Skip – President of Boeing Far East
"It occurred to me that the MCAS stall-sensors on the 737 Max could signal stall conditions when the plane is merely banking and turning. Checking a bit further it seems that both planes encountered problems shortly after turning. Likely the technical folks are on top of this possibility, but I have heard nothing about it. You’re my only connection who might ensure that this possibility is being investigated. Please let me know you got this. Thanks."
2021 Note: The NTSB preliminary report on the 737 MAX makes reference to neither banking nor turning.


1996 – Remembering flight TWA 800   [Return to Top]
Flight TWA 800 blew up off Long Island in 1996. The official explanation is that a spark from the fuel gauge (FQIS) ignited the vapors in a nearly empty, center-wing, fuel tank (CWT). That indeed seems reasonable but there seems to be no consideration of a very important fact. The flash point is a critical consideration in getting a vapor-mixture to explode with a spark, and the flash point of jet fuel is about 150 degrees F above that of gasoline. It should be nearly impossible to get a tank containing jet fuel to explode with a spark, whereas with gasoline, it should be a piece of cake. Explosivity of jet fuel and air mixtures were explored experimentally as noted in the NTSB report, but the conclusions were a bit muddled. It is possible that explosive conditions existed inside the CWT with 50 gallons of Jet A. It seems more likely that the fuel tank in question had been mistakenly filled with aviation-gasoline (or a mix of that and Jet-A) in Athens, Greece, and only 50 gallons remained in the CWT when TWA 800 left JFK airport. The word gasoline appears nowhere in the 425-page NTSB report. Further, the plane spent almost 4 hours on the ground in the afternoon on an unusually hot day.

2020 A divided nation – You won’t see this in the news   [Return to Top]
Trump is dividing our nation and I’m tired of it. How can he do this? Maybe he can’t. We have always been divided. Democrats and Republicans; the rich and the poor; black and white, etcetera, etcetera. When we start naming and classifying, we are dividing. Some might exploit such divisions but they were always there, and they will always be there until humans are extinct.

But this is about the mainstream media. They are absolutely essential for an informed population. And have you noticed that our national legislators depend on the media for information; apparently developing very little on their own? But that’s a whole ‘nother story. The media has been highlighting how the corona virus is affecting black and Latino folks disproportionately. While this is likely 100% correct, it is nothing new and merely highlights a situation that has existed “forever.” These folks certainly need more help, but many of us have black and Latino friends who are doing just fine. Hhhhhmmmmmm.

But back to the media: Harping on a black and Latino problem, while not technically correct, serves to fan the flames of divisiveness. Don’t you think there’s a segment of our population that absolutely rails against any additional help for minorities, and more who are simply indifferent? If the media would focus on poor, disadvantaged, less-educated folks, the message would be more inclusive and less devisive. With less negativity and more positivity, help for such group would be hard for anyone to disagree with. If a high proportion of these beneficiaries were black and Latino, so be it. As always, the devil will be in the details, but even purple folks with pink polka dots will be included. Meanwhile mainstream media: STOP fanning the flames of divisiveness, THINK about your reporting, and HELP everyone!

2024 Schmartz?   [Return to Top]
Let’s assume that some folks are smarter than others, whatever that means. Let’s also assume that the population intulligence level follows a “normal distribution.” That means that about one in six people you meet are super-smart. Most of the rest of us, or about 2/3 of the population, are more-or-less, regular folks. It is scary to realize that about one in six folks are operating with sub-standard brainpower. That’s 52 million such people running loose in the U.S. Further, it’s really impossible to tell who’s who. The guy picking up your garbage could well have more smarts than a major corporation CEO. Got it? Something we can ALL agree on: There is a large chunk of the U.S. population that does not have a clue. Who? You? Me?

2020 – Interpreting the news – Social injustice   [Return to Top]
We hear a lot about some folks being disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The reason? Social injustice! And it needs to be fixed: No one favors injustice.

It is likely that many of the adversely affected folks have less money and less education than the average citizen. But this is the United States and such differences have existed for hundreds of years. It is likely that such differences will continue to exist for hundreds of years. There may be countries where resources are spread much more evenly, but few have purchased one-way tickets.

So, since most of us are stuck here let’s resolve to do even better in mitigating the injustice. It would likely be better for all of us if poorer folks could earn a bit more money, and we could somehow get the less educated smartened-up.

But the news folks would like us to infer that fixing social injustice problems would resolve the disproportionately affected problems. Of course, their job is to report the news that they hear; not to make news or effect solutions. However, they should probably be a lot more thoughtful and not confuse correlation with causation.

After the social injustice is completely fixed, some folks will still have more money and others will have less. Some folks will still be better educated and some less. Considerations of individual intelligence are well beyond the scope of this discussion, if even relevant. The poorer less educated folks will still be living in closer quarters than the average citizen and be working in jobs where their physical presence is required. So, in the next pandemic these folks will again be disproportionately affected. Is this news to you? Do we need better robots?

2024 – Give me money, money, money   [Return to Top]
Yes, it’s true: Those with more money get better justice, get better health care, live in nicer places, live longer, etcetera, etcetera. Maybe this is unfair, not right, needs to be changed, et cetera, et cetera. We know that money is important: That’s why we would all like to have more of it, rather than less! If you think this is news, you have been living under a rock. It’s just not rocket science, and it is certainly not NEWS! Does the media think it is?

Money matters: In the US, poorer people have less, and get less in the housing market, in legal representation, in medical care, etcetera, etcetera; regardless of their ethnicity, skin color, et cetera. If you think this is news, you have been living under a rock. Feel free to consider this unfair or fair; but it is merely a statement of current, and likely future conditions.

Why not make simply make reference to low-income folks and omit the racial overtones which are irrelevant and devisive?

2020 – People of color   [Return to Top]
Long ago people of color were referred to as colored people. (I don’t want to tell you that I actually remember that, nor do I want to tell you that I don’t remember.) Between then and now, they have been referred to in various ways. Colored people, having one less syllable, would seem to be the simpler, more efficient reference, albeit a minor improvement. Meanwhile, here's an even simpler way of referring to the people of color who we know: Friends.

So mebbie what goes around does come around. Anybody get the brass-ring?


2021 – NAG   [Return to Top]
I’ve had it. Things have been going downhill from many, many decades and as a group, men and have suffered worst. There are national organizations highlighting the plight of women and many other segments of the population. But there’s been absolutely nothing for men.

In recent years a new phenomenon has developed. It has affected men who have become public figures in government, industry, or whatever. There are a lot of them and certainly some have misbehaved and deserve to be punished. We have laws and courts to handle all this. Almost every public figure has made a lot of friends and certainly some enemies. When newsworthy questions arise, it’s time to pile-on. It’s not really necessary that something illegal or immoral happened. Some of these men have made others feel uncomfortable. No doubt there also has been sexual abuse in some cases. Do you know the definition? No one else does either. But all it takes is 10 or 12 uncomfortable folks who likely never liked you from the git-go to “come forward” with things that happened recently or even 3 or 4 decades ago.

Some important men have quit their jobs not because they did anything officially punishable, but because they wanted to end the bad publicity rather than fighting the details out in court, or worse, fighting them out in the press. Men are beginning to get the message and many of them with more than half a brain will not entertain any high-profile job. That leaves men with less than half a brain, who should not have a high-profile job. So the downward spiral continues. Aahhhhaaaaa, the gap can be filled by women. In 10 years, men will hold very few important, influential positions. It’s time that WE organized. With little encouragement I’m willing found an organization called National Association of Guys. Our initials will be: NAG. Who’s in? The URL nag4men.org is currently available for less than $15 per year.

2021 – Computer Weenies   [Return to Top]
I just charged something using the USB micro-B connection. Of course, I checked carefully to make sure that I was not plugging it in upside-down. It only takes a second to check the micro-B connection, but how many billions of people have spent a second or two of their life, trillions of times? Maybe the computer weenies were not as smart as they thought they were. It will be so easy when everything converts to the USB Micro-C connection. There is no upside down at all.

2020 – Ths sky is not falling ???   [Return to Top]
Up, up, and away. Nothing but blue skies from now on. The stock market is telling us we’re back to normal, if not even better. The tens of millions out of work must still be spending like faithful consumers so that businesses are doing well. For a moment, I wondered if it was just the trillions the government doled out to those who had no immediate need for it, but did not want to sock it away in a savings account earning 0.6%. But I put that thought out of my mind right away. And the record number of bankruptcies are simply the exceptions that test the rule.


2015 – Deep in the heart of taxes . . . Corporate Taxes   [Return to Top]

Seen on TV recently: “For every dollar in taxes that corporations do not pay, a taxpayer has to pay a dollar extra.”

Dorothy tells me: “For every dollar in taxes that corporations DO pay, a taxpayer has ALREADY PAID THAT dollar.”

That's assuming…

  1. Corporations are NOT philanthropic institutions.
  2. Corporations get the money to pay their taxes from customers.
  3. Corporations customers are taxpayers.

Hmmmmm. So mox nix (macht nichts): They’ve got us either way!

But since the money really comes from us (customers) it represents HIDDEN taxes. The government obtains tax money from corporations and fools the rest of us into thinking it’s NOT OUR money.

Further. Do corporations vote? NO. Well, that’s taxation without representation and we didn’t useta like that. Should businesses NOT be taxed?

Or should businesses be taxed at 5% of income. They don’t pay anything on income, they only pay on profits. A corporate income tax should really simplify things for companies as well as for the IRS. You and I pay taxes on our income. We don’t get to deduct necessary operating expenses like food, clothing, transportation, and shelter and then only pay on our disposable income, which might be the analog to corporate profits. – Does a VAT (value added tax) do the same thing?

For another day: What to do with all the unemployed tax accountants?


2020 – HIPPA   [Return to Top]
I have not yet found a doctor or hospital who has discovered email. Things get faxed. Do you remember what that is? You stick a piece of paper in a machine and a couple minutes later it comes out of someone else’s machine after going through the telephone wires. (Yes, telephones used to have wires.) Further, they are afraid to give any results, even simple ones, by telephone. Why? Because they are afraid of getting prosecuted. If there is any silver lining, it is that the folks who died waiting for COVID-19 test results do not have to worry about violations of their privacy.


2014 – The davidr DIET   [Return to Top]
You’re gonna like this one. Nothing to buy. No book to read. No counting calories, carbs, or whatever. By now, you’ve tried every diet and many fads. Some have worked for a while, but none have been THE solution. Why? The secret (exposed here) is in behavior modification. Not in dieting per se.

Eat whatever you want, 3 meals a day. BUT . . .

Get a good digital scale and get on it every morning.

Tape a sheet onto the front of your fridge. At the top, write your weight goal, and record your weight once a week on the sheet.

Exercise self-control when food shopping:

You will not snack at home, if you do not buy snacks. A few minutes of self-control in the supermarket can do wonders.

Exercise every day:

Choose whatever is right for you. Try for 30 minutes, but never less than 10.

And . . .

As you go through your daily life, notice the obesity around you and quietly say, “That’s not for me.” How do folks get that way? VERY SLOWLY. And most never get back. You will feel better after shedding as little as 3 to 5% of your body weight. And relax: The health hazards from being too thin are minimal.

DISCLAIMER: The plan above is neither the result of extensive double-blind scientific studies nor research of the available literature. It is pure opinion assembled from the depths of complete ignorance. But give it a try.