Details

 Today is the last day of the year. We use a number system, calling it 2021. It is based on a solar year and dates back some time, with adjustments over the centuries as needed because the day/night cycle and the orbit don't really come out in even numbers. Generally the adjustments are small, though every four years a day is added because the orbit is not 365 days, but closer to 365.25. It's not exactly that, either, so other adjustments are built in, but rare enough that most people won't experience them. Smaller adjustments are made in public time as the actual time of our planetary rotation is not 24 hours, but off a little. The exact moment for some phenomena can be observed and recorded, but how many seconds are really in a day? A day is very slightly longer than 24 hours, which adds up to a second every year and a half or so, and over the longer term, the rotation has slowed by a bit over a millisecond per century. These variations are known by science and adjustments are made. People know about Leap Year, the years with an extra day. Leap seconds are added to the clock at the end of June or December as needed, but without much notice or fuss by the general public.

Most of us don't need to follow all this detail. Adjustments of a second in public time has no effect on when you sit down for lunch or join your next Zoom meeting, though if those adjustments weren't made, eventually the shifts in time would become large enough to be noticeable. Systems are in place to take care of them so business and life can go on uninterrupted and with confidence that the trains will not crash due to time differences across jurisdictions.

This is one clear illustration of the details of existence that we don't bother with most of the time. Such details are everywhere. Sometimes they are much more important, and unexpected variations can have very serious consequences. Like GM's exploding batteries. The science seemed to work. The engineering probably required some adjustment because electronics doesn't always work quantitatively according to the design specs for each piece. And most of the batteries seem to function well enough. But some overheat and explode. That is something that will probably get fixed, eventually. Maybe not. Maybe the Chevy Bolt will cease to exist and serve as a cautionary tale for the whole electric vehicle industry. We want consistency and accuracy, but we don't consider how truly complex our world is, instead using the simplified version that allows us to get on with life without asking too many detailed questions. Reality is beyond our comprehension.

Most people don't understand viruses. All the changing recommendations from public health officials during this pandemic have caused confusion and distrust in the public, including among health care professionals, who know some about health care but not enough, apparently, to follow the changes of science in real time. Living with constant uncertainty is a part of the human condition, but being reminded of that so much lately is wearing. The basic recommendations have not changed much. We know the general rules of how respiratory viruses spread and what actions help to decrease the risk of infection. But we want exact numbers for those risks. We want to know how many days or hours a person who tests positive is still capable of spreading the virus. But there is no exact number of days or hours. It will vary across the population according to too many variables to list, most of which have never been studied because they involve interaction of the complexities of human physiology at levels we don't understand, or so I expect. I'm not familiar with the data on which the decrease in isolation time recommended by the CDC is based. First exposure meant a 14 day isolation. Then 10 day. Now 5 day. Only applicable if the patient has no symptoms. Does the patient recognize all relevant symptoms?  I wouldn't bet my life on it. And I want to protect my life.

In my case, I'm not very social by nature so social distancing and staying home are not burdens. I may live under pandemic rules by choice from now on. The heavier burden is watching so many people fight against useful recommendations out of fear and ignorance, and know there is nothing I can do to make that change. Another one of those details that science has revealed: people who oppose vaccination will not change their minds based on data and truth. That is an uncomfortable details about the human condition.

You're Getting Warmer

 Sometime each month I check on the data for the previous month to follow the trends in global warming data. Okay, I check the first week of the month to see what the satellite data reported from UAH say, then later to see what everyone else says. October was warm in the satellite data, 0.37 degree anomaly, up from 0.21 in September, with the linear regression unchanged at 0.14 degrees per decade. I find the comments on that site amusing because most who participate are convinced that there is no global warming and that any day now the temperature trend will reverse itself and prove that the climate alarmists were wrong all along. They don't address the rising linear regression (It has climbed by 0.02 in the last decade or so.)

Other data sources aren't out with numbers for October yet, but I say a site in my search about year-to-date average, so I clicked to see what it was. It was from January 2021, so there was no year-to-date data, just the number for January compared to all past Januarys, but there were lines for the rest of the years. I looked in the site to try to find something to click to get the most recent data, since we are well past January for this year. I couldn't find anything and there was no search function.

I tried a new search on my browser, using Google, and searching year to date average global temperature, and only got the same January site. I clicked on the September report from NOAA, and tried year-to-date there, because the graph I looked at used their data. I got nothing useful; it had no way I could find to reach the graph.

Finally, I went back to the January graph, looked at the details in the url, and changed a number in it that ended in 01 to 09. That worked, and I saw that 2021 is currently the sixth warmest year to date through September, and trending upward, so it might cross up to fifth or fourth, unless the La Nina drops the temperatures in November and December, as some ar.)e predicting.

I don't understand why the algorithms couldn't find the graph for me on the search. Doesn't NOAA want people to see the more recent graphs? Does Google's search algorithm get so bogged down with one site it can't find something that is clearly a better match (I put in September 2021 in my year-to-date search.)? Maybe the algorithms suffer from the same weaknesses as the general population of America; they don't know much, don't care at all, and can't be bothered with any kind of change once they have settled on something. I find it frustrating that no matter how carefully I tailor my searches, I don't find what I'm after even though I know it's out there. Maybe I need some training in how to better manipulate these lame algorithms that are supposed to be superintelligent and about to take over the world.

Congress passed an infrastructure bill. Not a big enough one, but it is a step. I expect Biden's approval will go up a point or two. Maybe it will lead to more success, which would be nice.

Predicted Outcome

 Ohio had two congressional districts with special elections this week. The results were predictable, and predicted, even by me. Gerrymandering won and representative democracy lost.

In my district, a Republican candidate with no government experience and no apparent qualifications won easily against a serving Democrat from the state legislature. The seat was vacated by our previous representative so he could become president of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. He had held office in the state legislature before running for Congress, which he lost in his first campaign, but won a rematch in 2010, when Democrats were so disillusioned by the failure of the Obama Administration to solve all the world's problems in a few weeks, they didn't bother to vote. That gave Republicans complete control of the state legislature and also Congress on a national level. So Republican gerrymandered our district, which used to be somewhat competitive to a guaranteed win for Republicans.

So it seems I will have a useless and incompetent representative, at least until after next year's election. My guess is that gerrymandering will win again and I will still be in a Republican district. That saddens me because I believe, at least somewhat, in the democratic republican form of government.

I can't say how bad a representative I have now. I doubt he will be a worse embarrassment to Ohio than Jim Jordan, but he might. I think he was an energy company lobbyist, so he will probably oppose action on global warming, along with the rest of his party, despite decades of data and actual changes causing a great deal of harm in the world, which will continue to get worse as the warming continues, even if we take action. The best we can do is limit the severity of the damage. It is too late to prevent a lot of warming and damage because we haven't already taken the action the science suggested we should.

In the other election, a democrat who was in local government ran against a radio personality who has run for office before and always lost. The Republican didn't respond to media inquiries about her position on issues. She seems sadly typical of current Republican candidates; uninformed and uninterested in making the world better.

In Virginia, the Republican candidate for governor won based on a campaign of fear mongering and lies, stirring up racial resentment. I guess he and his party have nothing else to offer. It is a sad state of affairs.

A Small Comfort

 I have noticed that when I make a purchase, I start seeing ads online for items similar to my purchase. I think it's funny that after I bought a stethoscope I started seeing ads for medical devices, along with constant emails from the company I bought from. I am unlikely to buy another stethoscope, as my first one lasted more than two decades, so the new one should be around for some time. I may, one of these days, unsubscribe from the emails, but that isn't always easy.

Yesterday, I mailed in my ballot for November's election. It seems the algorithms aren't aware of that. I take some comfort in that fact. It may be that, in fact, the algorithms are aware that I have already voted, but I keep seeing ads for various candidates anyway. I know some kind of algorithm is responsible for the political ads I'm seeing because they are for candidates for my city's council and my school district's school board. I know that the social media I use, and the browsers and search engines, and all the other techy things that make up such a big part of our lives have access to a lot of information about me. I'm sure my address is somewhere in the records in Facebook, and even though I don't publish it, the algorithms know. But they are not all-knowing. Unless they are playing a deeper game, and letting me think they don't know the current status of my ballot.

I haven't yet received notice that my ballot has arrived at the Board of Election. Once it arrives, it has to be verified. Then it will be held until election day, when it will be counted. I know about these steps, and they allow me to have confidence that my ballot will be counted and our elections are secure enough for us to accept the results as legitimate.

It seems a lot of people in America don't understand these things. Traitors and insurrectionists tried to stop the official process of acknowledgment of the outcome of the 2020 election, resorting to threats and violence to try to challenge a result they didn't like. That is scary. I hope investigations continue and everyone even remotely connected to those actions are prosecuted for every possible charge and given maximum sentences for each. I don't care if they argue that they were just caught up in the moment, and didn't intend to break the law. I am quite comfortable with sending them all to prison for as long as the law will tolerate and imposing all penalties and suffering associated with felony criminal conviction on all of them in defense of democracy and the peaceful transfer of power. Our system of government and peace in our country depend on those.

So I voted. And I will vote again next time. I will follow events and learn what I can about candidates, and I won't care much if the algorithms get better and I see even more targeted political ads. For now, I feel smarter than the algorithms, and I don't expect that to change very quickly.

Living in Democracy

 I received my ballot in the mail yesterday. The election is the first Tuesday of November, and there are races for judgeships, city council, school board, and a Special Election for Congress because my representative quit a few months ago. He would say he had an opportunity he couldn't pass up for a position he really wanted, which is something like president of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. I think he's a coward and a weakling who didn't like the developments in his party but didn't try to change anything, and instead ran away. I say this because I am giving him the benefit of the doubt. If he wasn't disgusted with his party, both in Ohio and nationally, he is either lacking any morals or a dimwitted fool (which I really don't see in most of his career). But after he was first elected, his party conspired to make him a non-entity.

Which brings me to the election. I have chosen a candidate, but I have not seen any polls for this race. I don't know that there will be any. Everyone who cares about such things already has a firm idea of the outcome of this election because it is for a representative in a gerrymandered district. That is why my representative was a non-entity; he had no concerns about losing to a candidate of another party, only about a primary challenge from the crackpots in his own party. That was, and is, a serious concern. The Republican candidate in this race is one of those crackpots. He has no experience in public service. He has no qualifications for the job. I a committee of professionals were created to find appropriate candidates for this position, he would not be on anyone's list. But he will win the election because it will be an undemocratic election, gerrymandered to make sure Republicans have power and the will of the people be damned.

Ohio officials are in the midst of redistricting, and Republicans are again showing disdain for principles, even in the face of a referendum demanding fair redistricting. They would rather keep power than follow the Constitution or uphold the election results. The new rules say that a bipartisan committee should create proposed districts, which are then to be voted on, and only if the result is bipartisan will the new districts be used for ten years. But Republicans are perfectly happy to ignore the demands of the voters in Ohio and principles of democracy or morals, or anything else that might challenge their position of privilege, and will instead vote for clearly unfair districts that give advantage to Republican candidates in enough districts to maintain a comical advantage in light of the actual vote numbers, even though it will mean the new districts have to be redone in four years, under the new rules. After all, with the new districts the Republican force into place, they will just do the same again every four years. They think, and possibly correctly, that they can say they are doing what is best, and be able to keep this up indefinitely.

I don't know what it would take to change this. I have read that the Ohio Republican Party is the most corrupt in America. After all, the Speaker of the House was hounded out of office for his blatant corruption earlier this year. But still Ohioans will vote for them, allowing them to manipulate the districts to keep themselves in power. And then the public is shocked by the level of corruption we enjoy.

I will vote anyway. I will learn what I can about the candidates in the races, and vote according to whom I see as best fit for each position. And I will endure the pain of seeing the results of a corrupt system maintaining itself and feel helpless. I comfort myself with the knowledge that for the most part, they are neither bright enough nor competent enough to do much real harm. It's just sad that some good could be done if only we had a government run by people with principles.

Wow, what would happen if these idiots saw this? Would anyone come for me? I doubt it. They know that attacking your enemies only draws attention, and so long as they don't draw attention, they can get away with basically doing nothing at all, and still keep their positions.

One Week at at Time

 A lot has happened in my life this week, though not so much involving algorithms.

Last Saturday, I was in Portland. Liz and I flew out the previous Saturday to spend a week with Erin and Taylor and the boys, or most of a week. We were going to drive up to Seattle on Wednesday to see Nate and Cindy and hoping the new baby would be born by then so we could see him, too. We also set up a meeting with my brother, John, and his daughter, Lily.

The best laid plans. Cindy's due date was September 12. The baby hadn't come by then. Or by the 18th, when we flew out. Or by Wednesday, 22 September. We wouldn't have seen him anyway, because Arlo, the four-year-old, caught sniffles from a classmate, which he generously spread around. Sunday, Crosby had a fever, not high, but he was showing the effects, grabbing at his nose, and being low energy in the evening. Crosby still had symptoms, but seemed a bit better Monday.

We had fun, playing Mousetrap and other games. We ate out or brought food in, and we ate well.

Tuesday, Taylor was feeling under the weather. Erin had planned a trip to the Pumpkin Patch, so the rest of us went, and left Taylor wrapped in blankets in his chair in the living room. We went through a corn maze, saw a few cute little animals, and got pumpkins for Erin and each boy. I bought elderberry wine, because I've never tried it before. We went back to the apartment, and Taylor was feeling well enough to join us for dinner at our Airbnb, which is a guest house in back of a house a few blocks from the Clarke's apartment.

Wednesday, Liz woke up with a headache and congestion. She looked wiped out, so I sent her back to bed and texted John and Nate and cancelled our visit to Seattle. Liz slept for over two hours. She woke up when Erin came over with some soup for us. She had another nap in the afternoon, almost as long, but was feeling up to having dinner at the Clarkes'.

Nate told us Cindy had an induction scheduled for Saturday evening, which was two weeks past her due date, and was the day we were to fly back to Columbus. Liz decided to change her flight and stay a couple of extra days. She was hoping to pop up to Seattle Sunday to see Baby H, but Nate said Cindy didn't want any visitors for a few days after the birth. Besides, Liz was still coughing, which was one reason to delay her flight.

Both boys were back in school on Friday. Erin and Taylor took us to the Japanese Gardens, which were beautiful and peaceful, and made for a very nice afternoon. Then we got the boys from school and drove to Salty's, a seafood restaurant for dinner.

We went over to the Clarkes' for breakfast Saturday, then I left at 9:30 to get to the airport. I never learned how to set up direction in our rental car, a Nissan Maxima, but my phone gave me directions through my hearing aids, so the sound was clear, and I got where I needed to be.

Sunday we got an update on Cindy, but with very little detail before I went to bed that night. Monday around 11 EDT I texted to see what was happening. Nate texted a bit later to report the Baby H was born at 7:18 am PDT, so half an hour before I texted. The first information Nate shared was the the baby was "red and hairy". And Cindy was fine.

Liz left for the airport within an hour. We got statistics on the baby, weight, length, positive hearing test. Then sometime later, a name. Alistair Changning Hopkin, welcome to the world.

I got a toothache Monday. The pain came and went, but it was bad enough I was worried about it.

Liz made it home. She was pretty tired when she arrived, so we went to bed pretty quickly after the drive from the airport.

Tuesday we went to work. I still had issues with my tooth. Liz got a nap.

Wednesday my brother sent a text. It said there was a medical emergency overnight, and that that morning, Cal had died.

I stared at the text, trying to make a connection to Cal. Who was that? Then I remembered; my niece had a baby in July, and named him Callum. My two-month-old grandnephew had died suddenly. I never met him, but I had been enjoying the pictures my niece and her husband had shared. He was an adorable little guy, full of smiles. And now he's gone.

I still don't know how to deal with that. I don't know what to say about it. I haven't been talking about my new grandson because I feel like I should also talk about my grandnephew, and I can't. How can I be so happy about Alistair and so devastated about Callum at the same time? My daughter wrote a nice piece about trying to deal with all that.

Thursday, I took our old Camry in to see about the brakes, which suddenly had a lot of play in them. The mechanic said the brake lines were completed rotted, and the fluid was all gone. He said the car would need other things to be driveable, including tires soon. He was estimating about $1,200. This is a '97 Camry, 25 years old. So we needed a new car.

I also called my dentist because my tooth seemed to be getting worse. I got a message that the office was closed for the day. I took some Tylenol that evening, and was able to sleep. Friday morning I called the dentist's office again, and got the same message. I left a message that I had a toothache and wanted to see the dentist. I took meds again Friday night, but couldn't sleep for most of the night. Around 3 am I took ibuprofen, too. I did get to sleep some time after that.

I was awoken by my phone, which turned out to be the dentist's office. It was 7:50, and they offered any appointment at 9 or 8:30. I took 8:30. I got dressed, brushed my teeth, and walked to the dentist. I was 15 minutes early. The dentist came straight in, and we talked about my toothache. He suggested I needed a root canal. So I got one. He found a crack in the tooth that seemed to explain the pain. He said if the crack goes all the way down, I may lose the tooth later, but he recommended trying to save the tooth. I agreed. So now I am recovering from a root canal, with follow up in a week and a half.

While I was at the dentist, Liz and Sharon were looking over cars on the Carmax website. Soon after I got home, they drove over to take a look. They chose an '18 Subaru Impreza. Not long after they got back, they were told the computer systems were back online, and they could complete the purchase, so they went back. We have a new (used) car. We decided to call her Prudence. She is replacing Molly, but kind of displacing our main car, Scooter, an '07 Honda Fit we've had since '09. Sharon is donating Molly to NPR.

So, It's been a busy week, a challenging week. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. As Erin said, we have managed to wiggle through, and will just have to keep going, on into next week.

Unworthy Representation

 I have read comments recently that bother me because they are from people who should have higher standards. Representative Boebert of Colorado said Texas has not reported any Covid deaths since it "opened up" on 2 March. They reported 58 deaths yesterday or the day before, and about 3,600 deaths since 2 March. She told this obvious falsehood in the context of accusing Democrats of ignoring facts and science. So, pretty much everything she said is attacking Democrats was false, and easily shown to be false. If I were from Colorado, I'd be embarrassed by her representing my state. In fact, she is an embarrassment to Congress.

Sadly, she's not the only one. Representative Greene of Georgia compared mandates to wear masks to the holocaust. Seriously. The holocaust was the Nazis forcibly imprisoning Jews and others they deemed undesirable into concentration camps and systematically murdering them. Mask mandates are public health measures with proven efficacy in preventing the spread of respiratory infections. Ms. Greene suggests that in her mind these are morally equivalent. This seems to suggest she has no working mind.

While these two are obvious examples of mindless comments, they are sadly not much worse than the leadership of the Republican party in Congress. One representative said the events of 6 January were like a normal day of tourist visits to the Capital. There are pictures of him helping barricade the rooms where Congress had assembled for security. His statement also ignores the violence. The list of deaths and injuries is appalling.

Representative McCarthy, who is the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives said that a commission to investigate the events of 6 January wouldn't learn anything new. That is clearly false, as there are still investigations in progress, and much of the story hasn't been told. In his case, he is clearly lying for political reasons. He is aware that many Republican, him included, opposed certification of the election, despite the insurrection, and that having public attention focused on those events and realities would be bad for his party in the midterm elections. But it is still an obvious lie.

I think we Americans deserve better leaders, but I could be wrong about that. People say that in a democratic republic, you get the government you deserve. So apparently we Americans have committed some terrible sins and deserve incompetent and dishonest representation in Congress. What can we do to change that?

Cutting Season

 Today doesn't feel like a Spring day. It is cloudy, windy, and cold. I don't think the temperature got about the low 40's. But the blossoms on our chimeric cherry tree are about gone, and the grass is growing. I should mow the lawn this weekend, despite the cold.

I don't like lawns much. They're all right when you play on them, but we don't. Since I read about the history of lawns, I totally lost interest in having one. They are an artifact of the French aristocracy from before the Revolution. A status symbol. I don't need a status symbol. I'd rather dispose of the lawn entirely, but I don't know if that's allowed in this community.

I also don't know what to replace the lawn with. That would take research, to see what is allowed and what is possible, and within a budget I would have to create. I suppose we could just plant so many trees in the yard that the lawn wouldn't grow for lack of light. It would take some time for trees to grow large enough to cause that much shade, but I'm not in a hurry, I guess.

I don't enjoy mowing the lawn anymore. I once did. As a kid, back in Nevada, I mowed the lawn for our chapel in the Indian Springs Branch, our congregation of the Mormon church. I understand that the current president of the Mormon church has said they should not be referred to as "Mormons" anymore. He is a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, the current mouthpiece for Heavenly Father on Earth, so his words should be taken seriously. By people who believe in his Heavenly Father, which is Mormons. But when I was young, maybe beginning when I was twelve, or a little younger, I started mowing the church lawn on their riding mower, which I thought was cool, and I would sing aloud as I drove the thing around and around the patches of lawn around the chapel.

The church there changed the landscaping sometime after I left Indian Spring, and now has a few trees, and no lawn, using a design that requires much less water. That is a good thing for a church in a very dry desert.

But here I have a lawn because I think it is required by the community, and I mow it to fit in. And I don't like it. I don't mind yard work, but I don't want to feel like I have to do it to fit in, or to try to make the place look nice. I don't care how my yard looks. Maybe I really should look up the rules, and see if I could change our yard into something more like the natural landscape of Central Ohio, whatever that would be like. Something that didn't require maintenance. That I think I would like.

Predicting the Future

 I have read a quote attributed to Niels Bohr that says, "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future." I'm not sure he said it, or exactly what he meant, but I'm thinking about that. What else would your be predicting, if not the future? But predictions are not all created equal, and one can often predict the results of a simple experiment, for example.

I have a birthday every year, as is usually the case, and in America, a few months before my birthday I get an email suggesting I check my Social Security account. I think the idea is that when I approach retirement, or my 65th birthday for Medicare, the government agency would prefer that I plan ahead, and start the application process a few months before the day I should begin expecting the benefits.

I don't have a particularly good employment record. I didn't earn much money from work until I was nearly 28. Then I worked for about five years, and went back to school for four more years. I worked, living on a stiped, for two years, then suffered a breakdown. While on that stipend, I was being paid by the state, and had some money going to a state retirement system, and not into a Social Security account. After the breakdown, I earned no money for a full calendar year, and then some. I got a job two years later, but it was part time, and close to minimum wage. (I got a kick out of working for minimum wage with two doctoral degrees, and with the responsibility for protecting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art.)

My part time work picked up some in the second or third year, and then I applied for a teaching job, and have been employed since then. My first teaching job was at a state community college, and so, again, paid into a retirement system, but not Social Security.

I believe that I have now reached enough years of employment in jobs paying into Social Security that I qualify for some level of benefits when I retire. I don't think I would get much if I stopped working now, and just took Social Security when I reached the right age. The website shows estimated benefits under different assumptions, but always assuming I keep working for my current wage until I retire.

That is where predicting the future comes in. One can retire and start getting Social Security benefits at 62, which is only four years away for me. The estimate is about $1,187 a month. If I work five more years beyond that, to the "full retirement age" for my cohort of American workers, I'd get $1,957 a month. Another 3 years, to 70, and I might get $2,622. So, how long will I live, and how much money will I need?

If I work until I'm 70, then die at the age my father did, I'll get $267,444, because I'd only be collecting for eight and half years. By the same age, retiring at 62, I'd get $235,026, but I'd have twice as many years of retirement. splitting the difference, and retiring according to the official schedule at 67, I'd get $270,066. So, if I'm going to die at the age my father did, I'd get the most money from Social Security by retiring at 67, not working until I'm 70. It's only a $3,000 dollar difference, but three years of time. What does that mean? For one thing, it means if I live four months longer than Dad did, I'd make get more money out of the system retiring at 70. Is three extra years of work worth that?

Mom is still alive, and is coming up on 82. What if I live for years longer than Dad did? How will my age at retirement affect Liz? There are a lot of questions to consider about all this.

For now, I'll keep working. Where is another matter, as I feel a certain pull to move West, following my children. And Grandchildren. Yeah.

Small Influences of Something on the Internet

 I can't tell how much algorithms affect my life. I expect that much of the time, they are operating in the background, and I don't see what they do. I see ads on the Internet, but don't pay much attention to them, so I neither know nor care whether the ads are chosen by algorithms. I did update my subscription to a computer security program, which popped up to tell me the subscription had expired. I recently got a new laptop, which may have had some influence over that. So maybe I am controlled by algorithms written subtly enough that I don't notice the disturbance. Or I do, but think it expected, because I have been using the software for some time, and haven't paid any attention to dates.

But it took me four tries to submit my federal taxes and get the return accepted. I don't type particularly well. Usually, I watch what I do, and read over what I type before I accept it, but when filling out forms online, the process is a little different. I don't use a commercial software system to do my taxes. I use Free Fillable Forms from the IRS. I have to fill in lots of boxes, and sometimes I have trouble finding them because of differences in shading on the forms on screen. But our taxes are pretty simple, at least since Liz quit making costumes. She hasn't had any business in Blackbird Costume Shop for a few years. So we each get a W-2, and I get the maximum deduction for the interest I pay on my student loans, and that's all there is.

I made a couple of mistakes on a W-2. I typed something into a box about a foreign address. It seems odd that the system would take information about a foreign address after confirming my domestic address, but I suppose people could have more than one residence. People who travel. I don't. I have one address, which I had typed in correctly. But somehow I got a few characters in the foreign address boxes.

I think it is a computer editor, or AI system, or something like that, that checks over the forms, and sends rejection notices when there are mistakes. I got an email, sent the day I first submitted my taxes, telling me my return was, um, returned, not accepted, and I should not reply to the email, because no one would check.

I went in, searched the error system to see what the problem was, and then thought I had fixed it by removing the characters from what should have been empty boxes in the W-2. I resubmitted.

I got another email about an incomplete foreign address. I looked again, and found the abbreviation for Ohio, where I live, in a box in the foreign address section. OH as part of a foreign address. I deleted it.

I got another email. This time, it was a rejection of the PIN's I had put in, copied from my notes from last year's taxes. I looked at my records, and I looked at the tax forms. They matched. I have not idea what the problem was. But I deleted both PIN's and put in our Adjusted Gross Income from last year. Same number, two boxes, because we file jointly.

It was accepted. Fourth try.

I have, in the past, made mistakes in typing in numbers while doing taxes. Once, I shifted the income for Liz's W-2 by two decimal places. It took about four years to fix that, because the IRS caught the mistake two years later, but charged us interest and penalties for the two years before the error was caught. And because I copied numbers from the federal tax form into the state and local tax forms, I had to refile for all three for that year, and pay back taxes for all of them. The AI system doesn't catch those kinds of mistakes, at least not very quickly.

I found it odd that I had to put in the EIN for federal, state, and local tax forms, but only the local tax software filled in the company name and address from it. I had to put those in by hand for state and federal. Why does the local tax system have a better database than the IRS or state tax office?

Filing tax forms is an annoying chore. Why can't the AI system check for dumb mistakes while I'm working on them, when it would be very easy to fix? Maybe next year.

A Weakness of the Democratic Republic

 Last March, Governor DeWine of Ohio cancelled the Arnold Festival, costing the economy of Columbus millions of dollars. He went on to order closure of most businesses and schools, and to mandate wearing masks and social distancing, and other actions to reduce the risk of spreading of the coronavirus. He was following the advice of Dr. Amy Acton, the Director of the Department of Health for the state. I was surprised, but pleased, the DeWine would take these steps. He's never seemed very bright to me, and is very conservative, so I expected him to take the mindless path chosen by the former guy in Washington, who made the US response to coronavirus a sad joke, causing suffering throughout the world. DeWine reverted to type later, caving to pressure to open up the state too soon, resulting in two subsequent surges in cases and more deaths, but at least he started right.

We now know that blanket lockdowns are not particularly effective in slowing the spread of the virus, but no one knew that then, so caution was the right choice. Now, in part because some people defied the public health experts, we have a better understanding of what works and what doesn't help. Targeted lockdowns are helpful. Close churches, theaters, and bars, places where people gather, stay close together, and sing or cheer a lot, because those are places where the virus spreads quickly. Wear masks around others, and keep proper distance between people. And once the vaccine is available, get jabbed.

Some people rebel against any restrictions, no matter how important, and people have complained about mask mandates and business closures since they were first imposed last year. Some are insisting that all limitations are unconstitutional and political, and that coronavirus is a hoax created to harm the former guy's campaign. If only.

Now, the state legislature has decided that DeWine, in following the advice of doctors, epidemiologists, and public health experts, failed to protect the "rights" of uninformed assholes, who have made a lot of noise for the last year. So they passed a bill limiting the emergency powers of the governor, the Department of Health, and the local jurisdictions, to impose public health measures for the protection of the population. The legislature has grabbed the power to override those rules. Governor DeWine vetoed the bill, but the legislature has voted to override the veto. Supporters claim they are doing so in the name of asserting the right of the legislative branch to share power equally with the executive.

These state representatives and state senators are uninformed assholes. They are not listening to public health experts, or doctors, or epidemiologists, or anyone with any experience in dealing with public health emergencies. They are playing to their base of arrogant, uninformed assholes, the kind who still say the Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election, despite the clear evidence they did not. It is shameful of them to pander to the weakminded fools who howl about rights without any understanding, or even consideration, of the realities of disease processes.

When a public health emergency appears, actions much be taken quickly to have much effect. Inserting the legislative branch in making those kinds of decisions will slow the process to meaninglessness, besides the fact that legislators in both houses have repeated shown themselves incapable of judging data and science, and have no record or tradition of seeking proper advice. It is a childish power grab that will be bad for Ohio, and may result in dramatic increases in morbidity and mortality in future emergencies. Or even the current one. After all, the number of new cases is not dropping in Ohio, which probably portends another surge. An avoidable one. And how do we hold them accountable for this travesty?

People say that in a democratic republic, we get the government we deserve. I fear that is true. The people of Ohio are narrow-minded, uninformed, uncurious, biased, and easily fooled, which is why they voted for the former guy twice, chose Mike DeWine over a vastly superior alternative, and maintain Republican supermajorities in the state house and senate. I hope they don't suffer too much from these pathetic mistakes. I hope those of us who know just how bad this could be don't suffer, either.

Covid and RNA Vaccines

 I got my first Covid vaccine yesterday. I have an appointment for the second dose in three weeks. Time will tell whether this turns into an annual ritual. I hope not, but as this coronavirus has spread throughout the world, and variants have appeared over the last year, it is possible that variants will continue to circulate indefinitely.

This vaccine is different. It doesn't contain antigens from the virus, but mRNA strands. Once injected, these RNA strands should be absorbed by cells. The RNA will bind to ribosomes in the cytoplasm of these cells,  and copies of proteins will be made. I don't know how the copies of the protein get out of the cells, where phagocytes can find them, but I'm guessing that is supposed to happen.

Once the cells start releasing the proteins, and the phagocytes start engulfing them, those phagocytes can carry them to my lymph nodes, and search for lymphocytes that have antigen receptors that recognize these proteins as antigens. Once that happens, my adaptive immune response can kick in, and I can start making antibodies and cytotoxic T cells, which would then be available to fight off the virus if I am ever exposed.

Because this process is different, the timing of events, including reaction to the virus, could be quite different from a traditional vaccine. I should take a few hours for protein synthesis to make enough product to change things. Of course, starting with mRNA rather than transcription will shorten that process by quite a bit, as neither the synthesis of the RNA nor the transport of RNA out of the nucleus has to happen. But with a traditional vaccine, the foreign antigens are immediately present, so inflammation starts with injection. With the RNA vaccine, the immediate reaction will be to the needle stick and the pressure of the fluid, but not so much foreign macromolecules. I don't know how the tissue, or phagocytes, will react to extracellular RNA. Since research has clearly shown that extracellular RNA is absorbed, that must not be too strange or rare a phenomenon. There is a mechanism for RNA to be absorbed, so extracellular RNA must already be normal, at least sometimes.

I don't know how long it takes with this vaccine before I have any protection from the virus. Certainly not today. With a traditional vaccine, it take at least a week, and more like ten days before antibodies appear, with a peak in production around fourteen to twenty-one days. Then the immune system is ready for a secondary immune response, which is faster and larger than the primary response. A major part of both is the production of memory cells, both memory B cells and memory T cells, which provide the longer term protection.

As this is the first RNA vaccine in widespread use, I expect there is a lot of research being done to track these effects. This is also a first test for a vaccine for a coronavirus, I think. Coronaviruses seem to provoke rather weak and short-lived immune responses, from what I have read. There are four strains that cause cold-like symptoms, but no immunity, so a person can repeatedly get the same cold from them. The coronavirus responsible for SARS, which had its notorious outbreak back in '02 in China, caused antibody production which lasted about three years, in at least one study. A vaccine for that virus was developed, but never tested in clinical trials, because it wasn't ready until 2016, and no one wanted to pay for the clinical trials by then, because no one had had the virus for over a decade. That was a missed opportunity.

I think, once we more or less get past this pandemic, there should be clinical trials for the SARS virus vaccine. We still have a lot to learn.

Internal Matters

 Deb Haaland has been confirmed as Interior Secretary. She is the first Native American to hold a cabinet position, or maybe the first Native American woman, and the first Native American in charge of the department that oversees Indian Affairs. I read that there are some tribes with oil and natural gas reserves under their control who are hoping Secretary Haaland will make it easier for them to extract those resources. Others expect that she will be hostile to the entire oil and gas industries. Something to watch.

I lost money betting on her confirmation. I didn't pay enough attention to time. The contract said by 1 March, and she wasn't confirmed in time for me to win. Maybe I will spend more time on PredictIt, and try to recoup my losses on other issue. Probably not. I won substantial money betting on Joe Biden to win, first the electoral college, then Georgia. I won more on those than I lost of the contract I lost money on. But I have realized that I have to pay attention to win. If there had been a contract just on whether Deb Haaland would be confirmed or not, I would have bought into that, and won.

The Department of Interior has a lot to deal with. The Federal Government owns a lot of land. Nevada, for example, is mostly not private, but public land, where no one lives. There are people who say all public lands, except National Parks, should be sold off. I disagree. I think we should preserve wilderness as much as possible. I think if grazing of livestock on public lands is allowed, it should be paid for and managed to minimize environmental degradation. My father used to talk about the Sage Brush Rebellion, when ranchers were demanding control of public land used for grazing, until they learned how much it costs to maintain the land, which the government was doing for the ranchers. Those grazing on public lands were essentially being subsidized, and getting a huge bonus compared to those who were grazing their cattle on private land. The government fees were well below market rates, and didn't even cover basic costs. But those Republican ranchers will still fight tooth and nail to keep those benefits, while fighting just as hard for any appearance of benefits to anyone else.

I would like to see increased regulations to protect wilderness areas and other public lands. I would like to see policies put in place to decrease our greenhouse gas emissions and reduce use of fossil fuels. I want clean air and clean water, and some kind of plan to maintain supplies of clean water for the future, as I have also read that some aquifers, especially in the West, are losing water, and have finite reserves. Water is a resource in limited supply, and one we must have. Maybe we should start by closing down cities in deserts. Las Vegas and Reno don't need to exist. There may be others.

Maybe I should write to Secretary Haaland, and propose regulations limiting cities to a size that the local water supplies can support. Put us in harmony with the land. I wonder if that idea would resonate with her heritage.

Who I Am

 I got results from the 23andMe kit. I have most of my ancestry from the British Isles. No Irish, though. Some German. No surprises in any of that. There were a couple of smaller surprises, though. A little West Asian. 0.2% South Sudan.

Yeah, by that old idea of a single drop of blood, I'm Black. Without the DNA results, you'd never know. It's hard to get lighter skin than mine. I do have hazel eyes, so not blue. I'm a nerd, bookish, good at math and science. I don't know what other factors matter. I have no rhythm and am not musical.

I read Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She has a character move to America from Nigeria, and once here, she discovers she is Black. She was never Black in Africa. She was Igbo, and knew about all the other tribes, and other people who were immigrants from Asia and other places, including Europe, but in America, she was Black.

When Americans, and other Europeans, created Blackness for slaves, they created whiteness for themselves. I can't say I identify as white, except when I click on menu choices that ask my race. Then they ask my ethnic background, a separate question for me to declare I am no Hispanic or Latino. I speak Spanish, in a formal, school-book kind of way, because I learned most of my Spanish in Paraguay, where most people speak Guarani or some other Native language at home, and use Spanish at work or with strangers. I was a stranger there, and never learned Guaraní.

I don't have a lot of faith in these DNA markers. After all, they are all made from the same four bases, and it is just the order that matters. I don't know how the catalogue of markers has been developed. I don't know how long the markers are, or how much variation there is across the population at specific sites in the human genome. I know interpretation is adjusted over time. Liz became more Swedish between her original test results and the current report.

My brother, John, and I share 53% of our DNA, including the X chromosome, almost entirely according to the map comparing our results. The percentage is about the expected level for brothers, but John has no Asian or African in his results. I wonder if that would change if he logged in again. Or if his has been updated at all since he sent in his sample. I think it would be fun to compare with all my siblings, but I don't see it happening. But at least so far, no one has told me I have to use the other bathroom.

Expanding

 I started watching The Expanse. Liz was interested, so we started the pilot episode. I was not having much success at suspending disbelief, because they had "ordinary" people living in huge complexes in the asteroid belt, people with minimal education and no common sense, and not having them all die quickly, which seems the obvious fate of your average American in space. Plus the idea that in a world run by engineers, scientists, and other professionals, the "belters" were an underclass being exploited by "inners", meaning people living on Earth and Mars. It is a comical absurdity. I turned it off.

A week or so later, after hearing a friend praise the show, I tried again. I learned a little more about the show and the different populations, but I still see the whole thing as a combination of advanced technology and science, and working class jerks picking fights like you see in sitcoms about "average" people, which is still a big gap to cross. The idea is, I guess, that scientists, engineers, and astronauts (who are trained as scientists and engineers, but often with military training and piloting skills thrown in) went out into the belt and built stations which could serve as bases for the work of extracting resources from asteroid and the outer planets. So far, so good. But they had families. And the later generations some how missed out on training and education, and became space bums, as if any community in space could support such people. No wonder the rate of murder by "spacing" is so incredibly high. Incredibly. Unsupportable death rate seems obvious from the first few episodes.

Then it gets worse for a few reasons. One is that the basic premise is that some guy from Earth, who runs a private business that includes making warships that no one in the solar system knows about, except that everyone sort of does, only they haven't made the connection between this huge company that contracts for advanced weaponry and attacks on ships and stations by unidentified warships that neither Earth nor Mars claim, but couldn't have been built in the Belt. But I suppose since no one has any education, maybe that is possible. For a week or so, until every station in the whole Expanse has sprung leaks that no one can plug because they don't know how to do anything except shove people in airlocks and push the activation buttons.

Another is that a secret base has discovered some "protomolecule" that doesn't follow the laws of physics. Its abilities emerge over time in the narrative. But a protomolecule would be something like a pile of atoms that haven't formed any bonds yet. Or subatomic particles that haven't condensed into recognizable matter. The idea seems to be that these protomolecules can enter normal matter, including living things, and change behaviors, becoming sentient somehow, and operate magically, since they don't follow the laws of physics as we know them. That isn't science fiction. It is fantasy.

And then the science goes away. Finding that this protomolecule is taking over dead bodies, with the help of what are presented as very sane scientists who injected live people, and restructuring Eros, an asteroid several times larger than the one that destroyed the dinosaurs and most living things in their time. Fear of the power of the protomolecule inspires an attack on Eros, but the protomolecule moves Eros out of the way. That is remarkable enough, but soon after, the protomolecule starts accelerating Eros toward Earth, and is apparently so fast, Earth has to react immediately or face complete destruction. In the interplanetary chase that follows, a Martian ship run by belters with an Earther captain follows, at about 15 G's, but Eros keeps accelerating even faster. I didn't calculate the energy involved in accelerating a mass that large at that rate, but it would be, well astronomical. And in what seems like minutes, but may be an hour or more in their time, Eros bypasses Earth and crashes into Venus instead.

It takes our probes and exploration vehicles months to get from Earth to Mars, not minutes. The missiles sent to destroy Eros took less than an hour to get past Mars to the asteroid belt. I'm almost tempted to check the distance, and see how far into relativistic speeds these missiles would have to accelerate to cover so much distance.

But I keep watching. I also read Harry Potter books every summer for a few years. Those stories are uneven and have contradictions throughout. I lost track of how many times Harry and his classmates were "introduced" to knowledge about werewolves. And all those references to werewolf cubs, which don't, in fact, exist within the frame of the story, because werewolves are created by other werewolves biting and turning humans. A little consistency would make for a better read. And in sci fi, a little consistency with actual physical reality would make is more about science and speculation of where that could lead than about total fantasy because no one bothered to check to see if the presentation broke fundamental laws of science. Even if you create some fantasy particle that is exempt from every law of physics, especially the laws of conservation, your scientists and their tools should still resemble known reality, or you aren't writing science fiction.

So maybe tonight I'll opt for British mysteries. They may bend a few rules, but, hey, there is a real case of a British copper being arrested and charged with the murder of a woman who disappeared on her way home in London, so the shows have the occasional basis in reality. Their writers have standards.

Not a Smooth System

 The age of eligibility for a Covid vaccine was lowered from 65 to 50 in Ohio as of Thursday, so I began looking for an appointment to get my first jab. There is no centralized website that has all the choices. The state government site has links to places that offer the vaccine, but one must click the link to check on availability, and Thursday, none seemed to be available.

Friday, I clicked on the state site, and saw that a new site was opening, on Ohio State campus, which is convenient, as we live close to campus, so I clicked on that site. I got a list of times for the day that was offered, and chose one. I was sent to a new page, where I put in my personal information, then another page for my medical and insurance information. Then I clicked the Submit button, and was told the time was not available. I returned to the page listing times, and clicked on another, and found when I submitted my request that it was also not available. Although this site was on Ohio State campus, it was through Kroger Pharmacy. I went back to the Kroger Pharmacy site, and clicked for a listing of available sites near my ZIP code area, and the message came up saying there were no times available within 50 miles.

The site would clearly not reserve a time for me just because I clicked on it. I was not afforded opportunity to fill in the required information before seeing if I qualified. No, others were also clicking on the same time, and someone else completed the forms faster than I did. I clicked the main Kroger site for updated every few minutes, and mostly received notice that no times were available

When a new day opened, I clicked a time, and scrolled through the forms as fast as I could, and clicked Submit. I got confirmation of an appointment. I will be getting my first jab in a week, and my second three weeks later.

I still complain about the system. It is decentralized and tedious and awkward. I may have missed chances at other places, though nothing so convenient as the one I got. I wonder how many people get frustrated and give up. I don't know how a better system could be set up, but I wish one could.

My other recent observation of the algorithms was also not very impressive. I read books on my Kindle. I see ads for books, which I understand is part of the deal if you don't pay a premium to avoid the ads. I don't see much that I care to see. I rarely bother to check out the books I see advertised. But today I saw an ad for The Water Dancer. I am currently reading The Water Dancer. The algorithm is trying to sell me a second copy, it seems, as if that is likely to succeed. After all, one point of the technology of the written word is that it can be read more than once. Even if I wanted to read The Water Dancer over and over, I would only have to buy it once. How can an intelligent algorithm not make such a connection? Well, because algorithms don't have independent existence, so they operate according to their programming, which is limited by the information available to the programmer and the algorithm as it adapts, or at least that is how I envision the process.

I still don't see much to fear from the algorithms I'm aware of. It the possibility that the really good ones work in the dark that I wonder about. 

Beginning to Hope

 Back in January, new cases of Covid-19 in the United States were rising, and reached over 300,000 per day. That was frightening. In the last few weeks, the numbers have turned downward. New cases reported for yesterday were fewer than 70,000, though new deaths were still 1,800. We will reach 500,000 total deaths by Tuesday if not Monday. But deaths are also slowly beginning to decline.

Ohio is following the same trends. No one is quite sure what is causing this drop. I suspect that one factor is that many people, like me and my family, are following the public health recommendations carefully, and so have lower risk of infection. And many of those who haven't followed those practices have already been infected. I see estimates that only about 1 in 5 cases is reported, maybe because people with no or mild symptoms don't get tested. People working in health care get tested regularly, even without symptoms, but no one else does, it seems.

Hospitalizations have decreased. Positive test rates have decreased. These suggest that the drop in cases is real, and not a result of decreased testing. Because there is a drop in testing, too. I think outside high risk populations, people are only getting tested if they go to seek care. Fewer people are getting tested because fewer people are getting sick. So maybe those vulnerable to infection due to poor compliance have all been sick. After all, with 28 million confirmed cases, multiplied by 5, we have 140 million people already through Covid-19. Add in those who have been vaccinated, which is only 13%, but that is 42 million people, we could have as many as 180 million people with some immunity. And if the most vulnerable are the majority of those, then the spread will slow because the noncompliant have already become immune. Those of us carefully complying with the rules for safety are getting more safe.

Will this trend continue? Hard to know. New variants could make people vulnerable again. though so far, the vaccines seem to offer at least some protection with known variants. We may see improvements in vaccine delivery, if we get through these winter storms, and that will help. 100 million people vaccinated by 30 April, 100 days after the inauguration, would mean a pretty big difference in the susceptible population. With acceleration of production and delivery, we could be almost normal by July. Let's hope that is a real hope. But for now, keep wearing masks and social distancing.

News of Facebook

 Facebook has banned news posts in Australia. That is because the government in Australia is working on imposing a law that makes Facebook and other social media, or Internet, companies pay royalties on news stories that users post. Facebook says it does not ask for the news, and has no control over it, and therefor is not responsible for payment. It Australia insists, Facebook demurs by banning news in Australia and news from Australia everywhere else. It seems like an epic battle.

Except that Australia is a small player in the economics of Facebook. I don't remember how many people there are in Australia, but it doesn't seem to matter. I think I'm on Facebook's side in this. If news organizations want money for public posts, they should control access, which I know would limit traffic and might be counterproductive, or should negotiate with Facebook directly. Government involvement is also counterproductive, as it drives Facebook to ban the news they would be told to pay for. Hardly and unexpected response. People should not be depending on Facebook for news to begin with.

In related news about the Internet and public posting, Malaysia has upheld fines against a news organization for what it is saying were offensive comments by readers of news. The comments were about the judiciary of the country, and the decision was made by members of the judiciary of the country, which is an obvious conflict of interest and screams corruption. Besides, since when does an independent judiciary need, or deserve, protection from unpleasant comments from the public? That is hardly consistent with the principle of free speech.

I don't know much about Malaysia, except that it is not a bastion of freedom of expression. I believe it has a repressive government and has legalized censorship with regard to comments about the government, because the government is hardly worthy of positive attention, so the only way it can avoid a deluge of bad commentary is to ban it. I wonder if Facebook has a presence in Malaysia.

I think I understand both why news organizations and social media allow users to post comments. People like that freedom, and probably are attracted to such sites, where they can, and often do, express themselves, pretty much any way they want. I also understand that there should be limits on such things, which there are. The news organization in Malaysia took down the "offensive comments", but apparently not fast enough. But I don't agree with the judges stepping in to decide what is acceptable to say about judges. Short of inciting actual violence, I'd say let freedom ring. More or less.

I want Facebook to check facts, though. I don't want people to be free to spread disinformation. That is a tricky subject. I understand that. Finding the appropriate limits, and the proper procedures for enforcement of standards, is a challenge. I know quite a few people who disparage fact checkers at every turn. I tell them that people who attack fact checkers just don't want facts known. They usually respond with insults. I don't think what they say in insults is really subject to fact checking, and I  don't want Facebook calling me up to see if I really am a pussy or a Communist. I'm not a public figure, and I don't care if my Facebook contacts call me a pussy or a communist. I'm not a communist, or a socialist, but they insist I am because I don't buy their nonsense, which makes me a liberal elite, and therefor a communist. Facebook wisely stays out of such debates. But statements that Joe Biden stole the election should not go unchallenged, because that is public information of actual meaning, and clearly untrue because the election was carefully observed and reviewed, with no evidence of substantial irregularities. That is, all evidence supports the conclusion it was a free and fair election, and those who say otherwise are attacking the foundations of our democratic society. 

I don't envy the administrators of Facebook. I hope they do good things. I might keep looking at Facebook, for now. If I want news about Australia, I'll search news websites. I regularly visit the BBC News already. I won't get involved in legal wrangling in Malaysia. Maybe I'll pray for their people, though, because they have bigger problems than Facebook or Australia.

A Bucket of Spit

 My wife has found some entertainment from the results of her 23andMe test results. She recently got an update, which included some shifting around in her genetic background. We were surprised when she got her first results, because has a great grandmother who was said to be Italian, but Liz only came out at 1% Italian, based on markers. With the update, that has risen to 4%. Her Scandinavian markers also increased some. I still wonder how these markers are defined, but I'm not surprised that they get adjusted over time. More data means better analysis, I expect.

So Liz got me a kit. Today, I opened it up, spit in the tube, and sealed it up for mailing. Some time in the future, I will get some results, assuming the package arrives at the destination, and nothing goes wrong in processing, and all those other steps that must be completed to get a report on my genetic markers.

I didn't ask for health information. Liz hadn't asked for it; she ordered the basic kit, thinking I was most interested in ancestry, like she was. And it's true; I am most interested in ancestry. I don't really care about genetic markers and there correlation with any diseases, though I do support continued research.

In order to get a repost, one must register one's kit. So I registered. And then I answered questions. Health questions. There were a lot of them. The longest set was about hypertension. I was diagnosed with essential hypertension in '10, when I was 47. I was started on lisinopril, 10 mg qd. That is what I take now, and it still seems to be controlling my hypertension. The survey asked about some 50 different medications, it seemed. I knew the names of some. Beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, diuretics. Lisinopril is an ACE inhibitor. It would have been easier, and faster, for me to just say I only take lisinopril for blood pressure, but that isn't how the survey was set up. And I answered all the questions, because I do.

I guess this means I have added a batch of data to some algorithm somewhere. I don't know what they will do with my answers before my sample arrives. I hope the algorithms appreciate my efforts. And I may discuss my results when they come. 

Texas Blows

 The extremes of weather predicted by models of global warming seem to be playing out. There has been snow across the American South this week, and another storm may be passing through in the next few days. Texas has power outages in many places, and Texans are blaming wind power.

That's right. Wind power. Which accounts for ten percent of electricity in Texas in winter time is being blamed for the power outages across the state. The problem is that frozen natural gas and failure in coal and nuclear plants from the cold are bigger contributors to the problem. And El Paso hasn't had the same problem, because it doesn't limit itself to power from Texas, being connected to other states. So El Paso was able to restore its power within minutes, unlike the rest of Texas, which, to avoid federal regulations, is not connected to other states, and thus suffered serious problems, including a number of avoidable deaths, when its poorly managed infrastructure for energy failed in a storm. It seems that without proper regulation, states can fail to maintain infrastructure in preparation for emergencies, even in relatively rich states like Texas. I would say it was shocking, but without power, how can it be?

It was 1 degree F at our house this morning. We had several inches of snow Monday and Tuesday, with wind and so forth. We did not lose power. Ohio is better prepared for such storms. Maybe because they happen here at greater frequency. But how many deaths justify the failures in Texas? I mean, Texas opted to avoid federal regulation, and saved money by neglecting to prepare for "worst case scenarios" in weatherizing its power grid. How much saving would it take to justify the deaths that have resulted from this failure? Who should be held responsible? I mean, Ted Cruz has defended Texas and attacked other states for failures, including California. Now that Texas has lost lives due to obvious negligence, should he be listed among those to be held accountable? I think so. His whole attitude about preparation for the changes due to global warming make him unfit for decision-making on any serious level.

The globe is warming. It is warming because of greenhouse gas emission from human activity. This trend will continue for decades, even if we change our behavior now, and stop these emissions, and will continue to get worse if we don't. These are things science has told us, and our "leaders" aren't listening. Well, some are. President Joe Biden seems to be taking global warming seriously. That is a good development.

Leaders in Texas have not been taking global warming seriously. I wonder if they will start soon. I wonder how many disasters it will take to get their attention. I hope I am underestimating them, but I always remember that quote from underestimating the taste of the American public. Some change that to intelligence, and I sadly concede the point.

Snow Day

 It snowed in Portland, Oregon. It snowed in Seattle. It snowed in Texas, and all across the South.

It was supposed to snow quite a bit in Columbus, Ohio. We are under a Level 2 Snow Emergency, which means stay home if you possibly can, so my campus director closed the campus, cancelling my lab for today.

I look out my windows, and I see snow. But on Molly, out '97 Toyota Camry in the driveway, I see about two inches of snow. Just from a glance, it doesn't seem like such an emergency. I can drive safely in two inches of snow.

What I can't see is how much ice there is, or what conditions are on streets beyond my own. It was still snowing this morning, as expected. I had said yesterday, during a Zoom meeting, that I figured by the time I had to leave home, the snow plows would have had several hours to work on clearing the roads, so driving conditions shouldn't be too bad. That depended on actual snow fall, of course. But an emergency was declared late yesterday afternoon, and the decision to close the campus was made.

I may not leave my house all day. I may go out to retrieve our bird feeders to refill them, as one looks empty, and the other is maybe a quarter full. They have been busy this morning, so both could be empty soon. But I doubt I will venture beyond our yard. There doesn't seem to be any need.

There is sunshine here now, but at least by tomorrow, another storm is expected. If the worst case scenario plays out, we could have more than a foot of snow by Friday, between what we have now and what is still coming. It seems the forecasters know their business well enough. I don't know how their algorithms interact with the rest of the electronic beings. It seems like a complex interaction is involved, as the models that predict weather must have data from observations of conditions across most of the world, and the ability to create and analyze a wide range of scenarios. That would require connections to places all across the country, and beyond our borders. I know that Ohio is the center of it all, or something like that, but these snow storms formed at some distance, and continue to move. I think our wet winter is influenced by the La Nina conditions in the Pacific, but I haven't checked to see if my memory about that relationship is accurate.

So the algorithms predicting the weather are doing well. Meanwhile, I am getting ads for women's clothes and software I already bought, neither of which I will buy any time soon. I don't know if there are selection forces operating among the algorithms. Evolution has so far been rather hard to predict, even in well-studied environments, and if the algorithms humans have created are truly capable of finding answers in ways the programmers don't understand, it seems unlikely we could predict evolution among them. Another thing to watch, beyond the weather and the birds. Life is full of wonder.

After my lecture, I think I'll take a nap. After all, I won't be holding lab.

Let the Indictments Begin

 The United States Senate voted 43 to 57 to convict Trump, which means he was acquitted because of the requirement of a two thirds vote to convict in impeachment trials. At least some of the Republicans who voted in Trump's favor have said they did so because they don't believe a president should be tried for impeachment after he has left office. There have been cases of impeachment trials taking place after a resignation, so history has allowed such trials. The argument that the Senate doesn't have jurisdiction seems rather a stretch, since Trump was impeached while president, and the Constitution clearly states that the Senate has jurisdiction for all impeachment trials.

I did read one argument that an impeachment trial of a president in moot once the president is out of office because the Constitution says the penalty for impeachment "shall be" removal from office. I have also read that most scholars of the constitution believe the senators are wrong to say that an impeachment trial after a president is out of office is unconstitutional. I tend to agree with those ideas, but I don't think it's something that is likely to come up again. Trump is an anomaly in American politics, and his kind will fade. A majority of Americans will be skeptical of candidates like him for generations.

I am encouraged by the legal proceedings that have been started, investigating Trump and his attempts to subvert the election in Georgia and perhaps other places. I would like to see him investigated for his felony violations of campaign finance laws in 2016, involving his affairs with strippers, and in 2020 involving the president of the Ukraine. I look forward to seeing reports on the investigations of fraud in New York. I hope Congress will take to heart the admonitions of Senator Sasse, and start taking responsibility for governance, as the Constitution requires. Yes, I want Congress to do its job, even if that makes it harder for President Biden to make progress on his agenda. After all, the rules on immigration are supposed to be set by statute, not executive order. Many of Biden's orders should be enshrined in statute.

I also look forward to seeing many convictions for the insurrectionists who attacked the Capital. I hope they claim in court that Trump sent them, and are still convicted. Let the indictments begin.

Not Knowing

 I am finding this week that I don't want to read. I'm not sure what the issue is, really. I love books, and I am still reading David Copperfield with Liz at bedtime, but I haven't picked up my own book, except just for a few minutes at a time. Instead, I spend more time than usual on Facebook, or playing Spelling Bee on the NYT website.

Liz has been playing Spelling Bee for a while. She enjoys it. I found it now, and I also enjoy it. I have always liked word games. We do the crossword puzzle every Sunday. Now we play Spelling Bee. As we are under one subscription, we play the same game. I should probably stop. I should let Liz enjoy her game. After all, she pays for the subscription. Most days, I wait until late in the day to see what words she has come up with, and then I see if I can find more. Sometimes I can, but not always. Liz has a pretty good vocabulary, and she has playing longer, who she remembers words that appear in the game.

Maybe I don't want to read because the books I'm reading are hard to read. I just finished The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. It has brutal, violent scenes. Torture, murder, all kinds of atrocities are depicted. I expect many or most of these things actually happened in cases during slavery, though a couple of the places Cora goes have societies different from actual history, but still depicted in ways that show human nature and certain tendencies in actions. Group dynamics were illustrated in horrifying detail. I understand a little about group dynamics, and it can be frightening. Committees tend toward the extremes because those with extreme views tend to be more aggressive about advocating for their ideas. I just don't want to go along.

I am also finding that I don't remember anything about David Copperfield. Not a character, not a scene. I am almost beginning to doubt I read it. Maybe it's just that my memory isn't as good as I always thought it was. I have noticed that I depend on checking facts to get things right, because I find all kinds of errors in my memories. I guess I'll let the algorithms handle that.

Streaming

 My grandsons found a show they enjoy. It's called, "How It's Made", and is a production of a Canadian company. I haven't seen any episodes, but it seems there are at least thirty seasons. I don't know how many episodes a seasons has. My daughter says they have two seasons. I'm not sure of the format, but maybe a DVD. They have seen all the episodes so many times, they have become a little tiresome, which takes some doing for boys of that age.

My wife and I talked about getting them more seasons of the show. We looked online. There is a scattering of DVD's available with a few episodes each. Nothing in order, no big collections. It turns out it is harder than expected to get access to this show.

We did find that the show is available on Discovery+, a streaming service I have never seen. We got them a subscription for the younger one's birthday, which is next weekend. I hope they enjoy the other episodes. There should be quite a few, so this might provide entertainment for a long time. Maybe until they outgrow the whole series, if that's possible.

I read about shows I think I would like to see, and then I find that I can't find them. I love Midsomer Murders, a British mystery series about an inspector in a made-up county in England. I have read that the actor playing the inspector in the first seasons was in another series some time before, which I think was also a British cop show. It is not available anywhere in any format, according to what I read. I don't know why.

I think we are pretty spoiled in this modern age. We have access to so much, we start to think we have access to everything, or at least that we should. I find myself getting upset when I can't find what I know exists somewhere. I'm sure there are all kinds of issues over such things as ownership. Maybe there are no useable sources for some shows. I don't know what format old series would be stored in, and how they might be translated to a digital format compatible with current technology. There is also the issue of possible audience. Some obscure series that wasn't particularly popular to begin with, and has not increased an audience over time, would take up some kind of resource if it were made available. I have no idea what the capacity of Netflix or Amazon Prime is, or even how it would be measured. I also understand that neither company caters much to someone with my particular tastes. But I still react as if something is wrong when I can't get what I want right away. Definitely spoiled.

I have a cousin who complained about limits on use of the term, Super Bowl. He can't use it in advertising for his pizza franchise. Well, no, the NFL is under no obligation to allow public use of something they have trademarked. Just because the Super Bowl is well known doesn't make the name public domain. Trademark protection exists for a reason, even if that reason, which includes giving companies some control over their image. I wonder if some series are not available in streaming services because the producers or current owners think they haven't aged well, and might be considered poor quality or offensive.

I thought about this in part because I saw an article online to day that said North Carolina has decided not to allow the Confederate flag on license plates. The official statement is that the flag might be offensive to some. I saw a comment about that, railing against PC weakness. I think the statement was an overly polite way of saying the government officials have finally acknowledged that the Confederate flag has primarily been used as a symbol of white supremacy and racism, and has no cultural value beyond perpetuating hatred.

So, should I watch It's a Wonderful Life, despite the portrayal of the black character? Or should that be made unavailable, as it hasn't really aged well? I can find something else to do.

Plodding

 I feel like I'm moving slowly through resistance. I'm using computers more than in the past, but only making progress at a snail-like pace. I have improved a little. I got my grandsons' savings money moved into an investment account. I got a new laptop, though I haven't even tried to transfer files from the old laptop to the new one. I think I need to do that, because some of the files on the old laptop include bank statements, which I may be asked to share again in future. That's why I have them downloaded onto the laptop.

Are there any algorithms watching me? Do they know I save bank statements and keep track of my 401K and my grandsons' investment accounts? Do they know what I do for work, using computer-based testing, now with remote proctoring software included? And that my lectures are on Zoom, along with my review sessions for students? I don't have them on my machines, but there is now a whole batch of recordings showing the actions of all our students taking exams, one at a time. The files can show the students' answers along side their faces. What might an algorithm make from that?

I have learned that the Artificial Intelligence system that analyzes the recordings has limits in perception. It says a student is "off camera" when only the top half of the head can be seen. I can tell the student is still there, because I can see the top of the head, but the AI report says the student is not there. So the AI has some developing to do if it wants to catch up to a simple human like me in proctoring a student taking a test. Seeing these sorts of weaknesses in the tech makes me think the singularity is not very close. I understand that a supercomputer can now be programmed to beat any human at chess consistently. The same is true of some other games involving strategies. But ordinary things like determining if a student is trying to cheat on a test does not seem to be within a computer's power for now.

Of course, we're dealing with software from a company that has clients all around the country with a wide range of needs, and not a dedicated supercomputer. Maybe a system could be made that could monitor anyone taking a test in a designated location, and could accurately read all actions, gestures, sounds, and movements of the test-taker, if provided with sensors for sound and visuals from multiple points of view. But a school like where I work could never afford such a system. I don't think anyone could, except for a sort of stunt, like the chess challenge. After the victory, the supercomputer was repurposed for some other task, so the best chess players on the planet are now just program files in storage somewhere. Our knowledge that they could be revived affects our thinking about chess and computers, even though they may not be currently in operation. So the potential of such systems is as important as the daily activities of current algorithms.

But none of those potential tools seem to be making things easier for me. I'm still slogging through work the way I have much of my life, and I don't see it getting easier or faster in a time frame that will affect my career. So I will keep plodding for another decade and a bit, and then find something else to do that maybe feels less like work.

Another Grim Milestone

 Some months ago, President Trump was giving himself credit for such great work in the face of the pandemic of Covid-19, talking about how keeping deaths in the United States to around 200,000 was a remarkable achievement. It wasn't, and it didn't happen.

According to Worldometers website, the US passed 400,000 deaths a few days ago. According to Johns Hopkins coronavirus pages, we're at 398,000 today, so we will pass 400,000 today or tomorrow, at current rates. Some experts have predicted we will reach 500,000 deaths by the end of next month, still well before we make much progress in getting the whole population vaccinated.

I looked at the graph of new cases by day from various countries on the Johns Hopkins website, and was struck, again, by the glaring difference between the United States and most of the other countries. Our graph is the worst, and we have no competition for the title.

I expect there are a number of reasons, but the obvious one is that President Trump and his team are incompetent. The president also contributed to resistance to recommendations like wearing a mask in public and social distancing. His followers, who share his lack of knowledge, attacked such measures as weak, as tyrannical, and as political. They decided that calling for public safety measures was an attack on the president.

At my work, we follow the recommendations. We wear masks all the time when around other people, and we limit time on campus as much as we can. So far as I have heard, we have not had any reports of infections on campus. We have a frightening number of students with infections. I have had ten percent of my students in isolation, either with positive Covid tests, or with symptoms and awaiting test results. Ten percent in two weeks of classes. Some have been quite sick. I find it troubling that anyone would believe that the safety measures are based in politics, or are unnecessary.

The numbers in this country didn't have to be as bad as they are. Competent leadership could have kept the numbers down. A lot. In the face of this, it is a scary thought that a country like this gets the government it deserves.

Finding Limits

 Restrictions imposed due to the pandemic have resulted in adjustments in how classes are run, and expanded use of technology. In the Spring, during the first lockdown, my classes were made entirely remote, but as we had little advance time to prepare, we didn't have remote proctoring set up for giving exams and quizzes. I was surprised that the averages on the tests I gave were not much higher than usual, but there are a lot of possible explanations for that. By the time we got to final exams, some restrictions had been eased, and we had students come to campus for proctored finals. Averages dropped like rocks.

We could conclude that our students were "cheating" during the unproctored exams. Although they had to take the exam at the scheduled time, and had limited time to complete the exam, there was no way to limit access to textbooks or other resources. We also expect that some student copied the questions. Easy to do using a phone. So is searching the Internet for answers if you can use your phone during the test. Students couldn't do that for the finals. But if that is the reason, then why weren't the test averages higher on the midterm tests?

I have an alternate theory for why the final exam averages were so low. I think the students were under stress, having to return to school, and being around teachers they didn't really know. Some of my students are in their first quarter, so they don't know the campus, either. I expect that contributed to the lower scores. But I don't discount the effect of the loss of all that access to course resources during the midterms.

Now we are again giving remote tests, which we didn't do in Summer or Fall. We tried a kind of hybrid lecture, with some students opting to attend lectures remotely, and some live on campus, but tests were all live. That was hard for some students, because of travel times. It meant that on the days of tests, everyone had to be on campus pretty much all day, so there were only a few days when the students who chose the remote option could actually stay away from campus. And then Ohio went Purple. More restrictions were imposed. All lectures were remote, again, and students weren't allowed to be on campus except for the tests. Travel time became a nightmare for some. So this quarter, starting under restrictions, we found an app that works with our computer-based testing program, so we can have electronically proctored tests given remotely.

The app requires a picture of each student for a Facial Recognition app, to ensure each student is taking her own test. Another app records audio and video during the test. An AI program reviews the recordings, and creates a report, identifying any anomalies in apparent student behavior.

It sounds okay. It should mean that students take their own tests, and won't get away with using their textbooks or smart phones during the tests. If they leave the chair, they get caught. If they read the questions aloud, that is recorded, and they get caught. That is because we can't control what is in the room outside the range of the computer's camera, so we tell students they aren't allowed to read aloud.

I occurred to me that this means some algorithm will be getting pictures of all our students. And video and audio of their behavior during exams. I don't know what use an algorithm can make of such data, but I expect it could mean something at some point. What stops the test proctoring algorithm from selling the recordings to the NSA? Could this create a permanent record that could be used to identify any of our students in the future? I mean, the system uses AI. I have no idea how intelligent Artificial Intelligence can be, either now or in the future. I feel like I'm participating in a large project to share huge piles of data about thousands of people with the algorithms that may one day rule the Earth. I might be contributing to progress toward the singularity.

I am also making it safer for students to continue their studies. For now, I think that is the more important consideration. Maybe someday I'll ask what becomes of the recordings and collection of photos, but not today.

The World Isn't Ending Tomorrow

 A guy I knew in high school posted a warning on Facebook, telling the world that President Trump is going to carry out a worldwide purge beginning Sunday night. There will be text messages sent from Air Force One, and an eight hour movie. There will be filmed confessions, and mass executions. Once it's over, the world will live in peace and harmony.

I worry that he believes this stuff. He has often predicted major developments in politics and justice, with an abysmal record of accuracy. No new evidence has come to prove that the Hillary Clinton campaign worked directly with Russians to create the "Russia Hoax" that the Trump campaign "colluded" with Russia, for example.

But he believes the Pizza Gate story. He is a Q-Anon follower. I have a hard time understanding why anyone with any intelligence would give such nonsense any time at all.

I know conspiracy theories have a long history. The Elders of Zion writings still have believers. Jews would have to be somehow superhuman to do the things they were accused of, but also weak enough to be persecuted for thousands of years all around the world. The stories are similar to the battle between demons and vampires as told in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and other such places, except that in those stories, the demons and vampires have real success a lot of the time, and manage to stay out of reach of the heroes trying to destroy them for centuries. Also, they live in places that ordinary humans can't find. Jews have never done that. They are just people with their own religious traditions and practices.

I've read the Bible, so I know that when Israel conquered the land they claimed, they were brutal to the natives, if the Bible is accurate. I think the Israelites were from the same area, so I don't know that invasion came into it, but I'm not sure. There doesn't seem to be any archeological support for Hebrews ever being in Egypt or wandering in the Sinai for forty years, but there is evidence of a Kingdom of Israel. But the conflict between Jews and Christians, and Jews and Muslims are very human stories. There are records of atrocities during the spread of all three. There is little in the history of any to suggest Divine guidance, as far as I can see. A religion spread at the point of a sword is not a gospel of peace.

The Q Anon conspiracy story claims that the world is run by people who are pedophiles who actually eat children and use components from their blood to stay eternally youthful. There are pedophiles in the world, but not a cabal of them running the governments and economies of all the countries of the world. The magical chemical they supposedly take from the blood of children is a breakdown product of epinephrine, and has some effect on activating blood clotting, but not much other biological activity, and getting from children is a waste of time. But how many Q Anon followers know enough chemistry to even understand the facts?

I saw a headline today that said the other radical groups involved in recent rallies and the assault on the Capital are getting annoyed with the idiocy of Q Anon followers. They want White Supremacy, thank you, and not nonsense guiding their efforts. Fortunately, all of them seem to have limited vision and understanding.

Justice Will Be Hard

 The House of Representatives has voted to impeach President Trump for inciting to insurrection after the attack on the Capital. I think over a hundred insurrectionists have been arrested. It is not yet clear how far any of this will go. Charges may be brought, but will there be convictions? People have lost jobs because of their participation. There have been changes, some even called purges, on social media.

I have complicated thoughts an feelings over all of this. I don't know that Trump continuing to lie about the election is actually a crime, though it is dishonest, immoral, and wrong. His words do seem to aim at inciting the crowd to action, and he told them to fight several times. And they did fight. They broke into the Capital, and broke windows and other things once there. The Senate will not vote on the charges before Trump's term ends, but conviction after impeachment still has consequences. Trump's popularity is decreasing, though his approval rate is still around 38%.

I hope the Senate votes to convict Trump, and puts into the decision a ban on his ever holding public office again. I hope prosecutors take on the cases of Trump's violations of campaign finance laws in 2016 and in relation to his infamous Ukraine call. I hope he is held accountable for obstruction of justice, and that everyone who worked for him finds it difficult or impossible to find jobs in government, or anywhere else, in the future. I really do want a purge of all MAGA types. I'd actually rather have them see the error of their ways, but I don't hold out any hope for that, so maybe persecution is the only option. After all, they don't respect, or even recognize, facts. How do reasonable people deal with willful unreason? It is difficult.

I read an article today that says Mike Pompeo is the worst Secretary of State in American history. I agree. I already believed before I read the article, but it is nice to see that someone whose opinion I respect has come to the same conclusions I have. The Kansas City Star editorial said Pompeo shouldn't not return to Kansas. I think he should retire to a quiet place where no one ever has to hear from him again.

But getting rid of all of Trump's fans is probably impossible. A lot of the attitude of Trumpites is based in unfocused anger and fear of displacement among white people with weak understanding and little hope. A lot of people feel that way. We might manage to push them back into the background, but they will pop up here and there forever.

So maybe it's good that I'm getting along in years, and don't have any ambition left to change the world. I find it sad that so many are still defending Trump and his whole package of lies and distortions. I don't see the point. Even if one wants some of the changes Trump talked about, Trump was unable to make any of them happen. He is incompetent, and he hired incompetent people, like Mike Pompeo, and they got nothing done. And all they have now are lies about how much they did. And people believe them. I need a more friendly topic to dwell on. Maybe I'll go back to work.

The Nature of Things

 I have always been fond of nature. I like plants and animals. I don't know all that much about them, considering my education. I can't identify most of the trees around me, or any of the shrubs and other plants. I see squirrels and birds, but I can't name the birds, most of them. I enjoy watching them, though.

Liz wanted a bird feeder. I don't know what inspired her to think about that, but she ordered one for Christmas, I think. It came just before Christmas, and was under the tree among the presents, duly wrapped and labeled. She opened it on Christmas morning. It is in the shape of a house, and made of cedar wood and glass. One side of the roof swings up on hinges to allow the inside to be filled with bird seed. The seed is accessible along the bottom of the glass walls. There are rails along the bottom for the birds to perch on as they eat.

I hung it on a branch of our odd cherry tree using a chain and S hooks, looping a bigger chain through the chain over the top of the house. I did this in the late afternoon last Sunday. Monday morning, birds arrived. There were several kinds, including a chickadee, house finches, blue jays, and a cardinal. I don't know what kinds the others were.

Later, squirrels showed up. The seed in the house was sunflower seed, which squirrels like. We had at least three squirrels taking seed from the bird feeder. It was kind of fun to watch them climb down the chain to the house. The squirrels stayed longer than the birds did.

When she got home from work, Liz watched for a while, and decided the squirrels were hogging (not squirrelling) the bird seed. She wanted to make a change. She wanted to feed birds.

She ordered another bird feeder, one that claimed to be squirrel proof. I moved the cedar house bird feeder to another branch, and hung the new bird feeder where I had the first one. This one has a spring that is not strong enough to hold up a squirrel, so when a squirrel gets on the feeder, the barrel slides down, covering the holes that give access to the seed inside. Most birds are smaller, and will not compress the spring, and so will have access to the seed.

One thing caught our eye as Liz opened the package with the new bird feeder. She had looked for a bird feeder that claimed to be "squirrel proof". It seems to live up to its billing. But on the box we saw a surprising picture. Someone decided it would be a good idea to draw a squirrel. Crying. Yes, a large, blue tear drop was on the squirrel's cheek. Why? Are we supposed to feel better about ourselves because we are making squirrels sad? Sure, this feeder is designed for people who prefer to feed birds rather than squirrels. But who is attracted by an image of a squirrel suffering? I was tempted to demand we send the thing back with a nasty note about cold heartedness.

I got over it. I just laughed briefly at the oddity, and unfeeling nature of the picture, and went on with the project.

It only took a few minutes before birds arrived to sample our new feeder. It was a similar assortment of birds to the first time. We found that because I had hung the bird feeder with thin nylon rope, it would spin around when birds landed on it. That didn't seem to bother the birds at all. There was a lot of flitting about between the feeder and the branches of the tree or the ground. Blue jays came by, but I never saw one on the feeder. I don't know if they are heavy enough to compress the spring.

After a while, squirrels came again. First, one scampered along the branch where the bird feeder hung, and looked down at it, but then left. After another minute or so, it found the cedar house, and started on the sunflower seeds there. Then another squirrel came. Sometime later, one of the squirrels tried to climb down the nylon rope to the new bird feeder, but just as it reached the top of the feeder, it climbed back up. Later, a squirrel made a more concerted attempt at getting to the new feeder. It climbed all the way down onto the barrel. The spring compressed. The squirrel spent a couple of minutes feeling and sniffing around the barrel, looking for a way to get to the seeds. It did not succeed. It soon gave up, and went over to the cedar house.

In the early afternoon, a package was delivered to our steps. Liz had bought a different mix of seeds for feeding wildlife. This seems to include cracked corn among the seeds. She said it had things birds, squirrels, and chipmunks like. I think she put some in the top of the cedar house bird feeder, which we acknowledge as a bird and squirrel feeder. Then she scattered some on the ground. In less than half an hour, we had five squirrels in blue yard, eating the seeds on the ground and in the tree. We also had two blue jays eating seeds on the ground. At least once, a squirrel chased off a blue jay. The  blue jays mostly kept some distance from the squirrels, and everyone seemed to get along.

It is a pleasure to watch these animals taking our seeds. I don't know about the ecology of feeding birds and small animals in the suburbs, and whether it is good for the environment or the community. But I enjoy it, already. And I have learned the names of two kinds of birds this week. Just having the bird feeder makes me feel like we have a stronger connection to nature.