Odds & Ends
11/29/09 Accidoptal Illusion
I ran across this optical illusion on my living room wall. It was caused by sunlight streaming through the miniblinds on the picture window casting a series of stripes on a framed photo. I recreated it above. The box representing the frame, mat and photo are square, but it looks cock-eyed on the bottom. Appearing as if the bottom right-hand corner is drooping, if that's the right description.
Here's the same bit of art without the light bands. Looks perfectly square in this case.
I admit it's not the most dramatic optical illusion you'll ever see. I thought it curious as it happened by accident in everyday life and not by design on paper. Thing is, we run into optical illusions quite often without always noticing. I wrote about this a while back, if that or this interests you at all.
11/26/09 HTDUSA
If you want to know what Thanksgiving Day is about, try pronouncing it differently than you might do normally. Instead of "thanks-GIV-ing" say "THANKS-giv-ing."
Make sense? Who cares. I'm taking the day off.
11/8/09 The More Things Change...
When the Soviet Union fell apart Communism was replaced with... I don't know what you'd call it, but the Russian president is the former head of the KGB. This might amuse them in some ironic sort of way because it seems one thing that hasn't changed is the Russians' dark sense of humor.
For instance, here's a pair of Russian gags from back in the USSR:
What is 150 yards long and eats potatoes?
A Moscow queue waiting to buy meat.
The government pretends to pay us, and we pretend to work.
Now one from nowadays:
To save energy, the light at the end of the tunnel will be turned off.
Which only goes to show no matter the form of government the national temperament remains the same. Or as the old song lyric goes, "You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy."
9/28/09 Econ 001
Quick Guide to Understanding the Current Financial Situation.
Do you call it investment and stimulus, make-work and spending, or pork and waste? I imagine your take depends on whether you think you're getting part of the take, on the take, or being taken. There's two sides to every coin. Three if you count the edge. The two sides being the up side and the down side. Though most of the time the down side isn't seen, unless you're financially upside down when you're looking up at the bottom.
To stimulate the economy the government tweaks supply and demand by spending to supply demand. Later they'll demand the supply back in taxes, demanding back what it supplied even though the taxpayer actually supplied it, only after the fact. It's like getting your own money from the future and if you've ever watched Star Trek you know how tricky time travel can be.
Future money added to today cuts down on the wait time between paydays increasing what they call the velocity of money. Which means you have to grab it and spend it quickly before it flies out of your pockets. I think that's how it's supposed to work.
This should clarify all you need to know about the financial situation today, also known as a mixed-up mixed economy. Or a confusing mess, just like everything I just wrote. You can thank me later.
9/3/09 Too Far Over the Edge?
A snippet from a recent news article:
...Adams said there had been a rise in complaints from people unhappy with their savings. He said it appeared some companies had over-exaggerated the savings....
What I wonder, is over-exaggerated a word? What exactly does it mean? Can you under-exaggerate? Is there, like Goldilocks might say, an amount of exaggeration that's just right? Would I know that if I heard it?
Is it similar to being better than the best? Is it akin to being extra pregnant? Or like being too dead?
I'm reminded of the phrase "forever and ever." Do we really need to add 'and ever' to forever? Isn't forever long enough? Or am I excessively over-reacting too much?
7/28/09 “We Don't Have no Stinking System”
There's a lot of chatter nowadays about the health care "system". Is there one? I mean, nobody talks about the car repair "system".
Cars are serviced under warranty, covered by insurance, or paid for by the owner out of pocket. Heck, shade tree mechanics fix their cars themselves, with varying success. Duck tape isn't proper bodywork and bent coat hangers hang coats a lot better than tailpipes. Still, there is no car repair system I can see.
For health care there's Medicare, private insurance, employee health benefits, out of pocket payment by the patient and more. Like shade tree mechanics, some patients try self-healing with home brewed elixirs, fad diets, positive thinking, crystals, or whatever else might appear in some book or blog. It's a pretty unsystematic system. More like a variety of systems.
So I wonder, when people talk about the health care "system", what are they actually referring to?
7/2/09 And Now...
As Monty Python used to say, "and now for something completely different." A gag cartoon. Which hopefully doesn't make you gag, though that pun might.
5/27/09 Orange You Glad You're Not Purple?
Colors are commonly associated with attitudes and emotions. Yellow is cowardly, blue is sad, red is angry, green is envious. Depressed or sad is also black, as in a black mood. Which means black is blue. Though black and blue together means sore as in taking a beating. Taking a beating in the stock market puts you in the red, which might make you blue, too.
What about the other two colors that complete the color wheel, orange and purple? Why do they get left out? What are you when you're orange? Would it mean anything to you if someone said they were feeling purple? If these hues were beings would orange and purple be green with envy? Color me dubious about that, even though I can't imagine what color dubious would be.
5/5/09 Motoring Mirth
Here's a bit of strange news: Motorist stopped by police for laughing...
Is there a problem, officer?
I pulled you over because you were laughing.
Are you joking?
Are you laughing?
Not any more.
You've likely seen folks do all sorts of things while driving, making phone calls, eating, drinking, putting on make-up, shaving, reading a map. Wonder if that map shows the spot where they go off the road and hit a tree.
No doubt we could do without these distractions while piloting a one ton vehicle careening down the roadway. Still, how far should we go to keep driver's minding their driving? If we're going after driver's for their mood I suggest we go after road rage more than highway humor.
4/8/09 Holy Boatmobile!
Eight Ways for Detroit Auto Makers to Bail Themselves Out
1. Cut labor costs by selling cars as do-it-yourself kits.
2. Rename companies in successful sounding Japanese style to General Moto, Fomocohama, and Karisera.
3. Resurrect glory days when Detroit was king - FINS!
4. Outcompete everyone on price by building used cars.
5. Hire infomercial king Billy Mays. He can sell anything. Act now!
6. Multi-level marketing. Forget about selling cars, sell dealerships.
7. Sell out to the Chinese and let them worry about it.
8. Hire charismatic economic wizard Bernie Madoff and... wait. Never mind.
3/22/09 Spring has sprung...
...the lark is on the wing, the snail is on the thorn and two birds are on hand in the bush. Soon April showers may bring flowers and possibly the IRS. In which case you might be taking a bath instead of a shower.
As far as I'm concerned warmer weather can't get here too soon. Perhaps that's because I live in Michigan, the "Winter Water Wonderland." Or so the old license plates proclaimed. Seems advertising the winteriness of the place has gone out of fashion as the motto changed to "The Great Lake State." Then to simply "Great Lakes." I suppose just "Lakes" will be the final slogan.
Or maybe they'll eventually reduce it to "Great." Though that could be taken sarcastically. "Michigan? Yeah, great." Still, we do border on Lake Superior which is a Great Lake. A lake both great and superior. Does the hyperbole never end? Though in this case great just means big and superior refers to farther up or above. The same way they use superior and inferior in anatomy. That makes Lake Superior big and farther upstream or more northernerish.
At least that's the story I'm going with.