Nicholsclan.com : a dimension of mind...

I'm My Son's Grandma

This hasn't hit the mainstream media yet, but the news/rumor is all over the Internets that GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin's infant Down's Syndrome child may, in fact, be her teenage daughter's kid. Now, the evidence is still circumstantial, but it's damn compelling. The trouble is, either way, she's politically toasted based on the facts. Either she's committed fraud by claiming the kid as her own (there's a birth certificate with her listed as the mother) and lied about the situation to everyone (hardly consistent with Christian values), or she exhibited really poor judgment flying 13 hours from Texas to Alaska while in labor with her fifth child (not too consistent with her pro-life Chistian values either).

And the real loser in all this is McCain. He made a "maverick" decision and went with an unknown who had not been properly vetted. He's running on the premise that he has the experience and superior judgement to make good decisions. Regardless of how the Palin pregnancy pans out, he's made a bad decision, and clearly not one he consulted his advisors on. Is this what we want? Another President who follows his gut regardless of data and without the counsel of his advisors? Isn't eight years of this enough?

Pondering Palin

McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate assures one thing. This fall will be an historic election, one way or the other. But while on the surface, the choice of Palin seems like a Hail Mary pass to disaffected Clinton supporters, I think it more likely it's a lateral toss to the Christian Right.

It seems unlikely that more than a handful of Clinton supporters will take the bait. They may have wanted a woman in the White House, but I doubt they want this woman. The last thing this country needs is to be led by a pro-gun anti-gay religious fundamentalist/creationist bent on overturning Roe v. Wade.

... oh wait, we already are.

Fox News Skybox Flooded at DNC

It doesn't make up for 10 years of biased reporting, but it's a start. Key quote:

The sprinkler was located on the club level in a skybox which had recently been renovated to host a news crew. It appears the skybox belongs to Fox.

After going off, the sprinkler released 50 to 100 gallons of water per minute and 9NEWS crews estimate it was on for around 5 minutes.

Funding with Flapjacks

Well this morning brought the second big fundraiser, this time for swimming. They had cut a deal with a local restaurant to have a pancake breakfast. The kids all filled the roles of hosts/hostesses and wait staff, and they bussed tables. Amazingly, for an early Sunday morning event, there was much more energy coming from the teen staff than was shown at the afternoon car wash. This couldn't possibly be because teenagers are naturally more bushy-tailed in the morning. Usually they are comatose at that hour. However, this was a combined girls/boys team fundraiser. One might suspect, if one were inclined to, that the presence of the opposite sex was the motivating factor missing at the car wash. Let's face it, any teenager would go out of his/her way for the prospect of attracting the eye of the opposing gender. While that same teen in that same circumstance would barely grunt in the direction of an adult.

Ahhh... these are the days...

Workin' at the Car Wash Blues

It's almost time for school to start. Let the fundraisers begin.

The boys volleyball team held a car wash today. Let that percolate in your brain for a bit. Conjure up images of energetic teens playfully soaping and rinsing cars while soaking each other with hoses. Enjoy that image. Then file it away with the rest of your unrealized fantasies.

This was a group of listless boys who clearly would have rather been anywhere but a parking lot being subjected to forced manual labor. The two boys up the road in charge of marketing were completely prone on the grass where they would limply raise from their chest a sign hawking the car wash. You parked your car and got out while a dozen boys drizzled water on your car, then lazily slapped on some suds from a bucket. Finally, the damp dirt was wiped from several surfaces of your vehicle with window squeeges and soaking wet towels. Then a parent took your money and you drove away.

Given that they were in front of a McDonald's, maybe they should have taken some of the proceeds and bought the kids some coffee. Minimally, none of the guys should give up on their plans for college, and those not destined to be desk jockeys should seriously consider joining state road crews.

Cake Wrecks

When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong

The Girl / Geek Divide

Having once sent my beauty a digital picture of a rose in lieu of actual flowers, this just kinda struck home.

It's Good to Be Mom

Well... it's good to be Michael Phelps' mom. Not surprisingly, he's projected to rake in $100M lifetime in endorsements from his medal run in Beijing. But it is surprising that his Mom is also beginning to land endorsement deals. Key quote:

The savvy Debbie Phelps, who has received more prime-time coverage than most Olympic athletes in Beijing, has a sponsor list of her own. After taking “the hearts of America in terms of parenting and mom of the year,” per Carlisle, she is doing some work with Johnson’s (of Johnson & Johnson) Baby. She also appears to be endorsed by Chico’s, the ladies clothing store who is claiming to be her lucky charm. She even has her own collection!

I guess our young cheerleader wasn't the only one who thought Michael's mom was the cutest thing ever...

Nuke Me Amadeus

Ooo nuke me Amadeus
Nuke me Amadeus...
Nuke nuke nuke nuke me Amadeus
Nuke me all the time to the top

... sorry... little MTV flashback there. But speaking of unfortunate things to happen in Europe in the mid-80's, remember Chernoybl? It was an unmitigated humanitarian and environmental disaster, but its largest impact may turn out to be that decades after the event it still has Americans scared of nuclear energy. Let's put this in context. Nuclear power accounts for 20% of the electricity produced in the U.S. today. There have been no new nuclear plants constructed in the USA in 30 years. To maintain that 20% slice, we need to build 3 or 4 plants/year starting in 2015. That's just to stay even. It does nothing to lower our carbon footprint or reduce our dependence on foreign oil. If we don't start exploiting more nuclear power soon, we'll need to make up that deficit with coal or oil. Not to mention that we'll need to burn more of that as the petro slice of the electricity pie is growing as well. After all, our electricity needs are projected to rise 50% by 2030.

But wait, you say. What about wind, geothermal, and solar? And I hear they're working on wave power, and hydrogen, and we can always burn ethanol and switchgrass, right?

Yeah... sorta. Solar power is still a long ways from being an efficient way to generate electricity. Geothermal is similarly underdeveloped technically, although Iceland is leading the way. Wind power is nice, but to generate the electricity we needed in 2005 with wind would require windmills to cover an area the size of Texas. And burning crops for electricity is still a carbon issue and not a terribly good use of land that could be growing food. The reality is that while we absolutely need to invest in the technology for these alternate energy sources, none of them will move the needle in the next decade. They may well be our future, just not our immediate future.

But isn't nuclear dangerous? What about the waste? What about the radiation?

First, nuclear is safe. A Chernoybl like accident simply cannot happen in a reactor designed to minimal US safety standards. It couldn't happen back in 1980. It didn't happen at Three Mile Island in 1979. While that incident created panic, absolutely no one was injured. Technology and safety regulations have improved since then. Compare that to coal. Particulates and other air pollutants from coal-fired power plants cause somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 premature deaths in the United States each year.

Further, nuclear has no carbon footprint. Given that over 50% of our electricity is produced by coal, switching coal to nuclear results in a significant reduction of the USA's carbon emissions, on the order of 25%.

The waste is similarly small. A nuclear fuel pellet is about the size of your finger tip. It has the energy equivalent of almost 1800 pounds of coal. Our 104 reactors generate about 2,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel a year. That may sound like a lot, but consider that coal produces some 100 million tons of toxic material annually. Less toxic to be sure, but the comparative volumes are staggering. From an engineering standpoint, the prospect of handling nuclear waste is comparatively simple compared to the challenges of sequestering carbon.

Nuclear is a proven technology. We understand it from a science and an engineering standpoint. It's cost effective, and compared to the alternatives is environmentally friendly. It has the unique capacity to move the energy needle away from coal/oil in the near term. It should be high on our energy agenda. But it's not. Both presidential candidates are for it. McCain somewhat vocally, but Obama's support is barely a whisper. It is deemed political suicide - the 3rd rail of energy. Ironically it is opposed by many environmentalists which can't look up from their herbal tea long enough to do the math. We need a re-energized nuclear power program, and we need it now.

...and yes, I'd buy a house next door to a nuclear power plant. Probably for cheap.

Commercials Should Be Simple

If you've watched any Olympics coverage you've doubtless seen the commercial. A good looking hunky shirtless guy irons his girl's clothes while making 6-month Anniversary reservations on the phone. There's some background patter about the Chevy Traverse, and then you see the guy cleaning the toilet. (Sorry, I couldn't find the video online)

At first, my kids just asked me what this ad meant and why it was a car commercial. That's a fair question, but I had to watch it two or three times before I figured it out. It strikes me that commercials which are that hard to figure out might be missing the mark. But then I'm clearly not in the target demographic. In retrospect, I should have just said it was a commercial for girls and left it at that. But I'm only that smart in hindsight. So I try to explain that Chevy is depicting a "perfect man" from a girl's point of view and equating that to the perfect car.

But this begs the obvious question, is that really what girls want? Well... no. It's what some girl's think they want, but most girls wouldn't really want you to act like that. Well... maybe the cleaning the toilet part... and the washboard abs, most girls would rather like that (but not the 2 hours a day you spent in the gym). And okay, remember an anniversary now and again, but don't remember more dates than they do. Some would like you to iron your own damn clothes, but most wouldn't want you anywhere near theirs. And in my experience, they'd be suspect of a guy who can accurately separate laundry. Guys do laundry on the theory of "if it gets wet, it's clean". In fact, we think that about most things which is why we don't clean the toilet. It's already wet.

"Gee that sounds awfully complicated."

Yes, but not really. Clean up after yourself. Pay attention to her. And frankly, knowing how to fix the toilet is often more highly valued than knowing how to clean it. Remember Red Green's sage advice: "If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy." An adage that is more true the older you get. Which is fortunate since you tend to get more handy as you age, but not more handsome. Unless you're Sean Connery or Paul Newman... I suspect no one cares if they can fix a toilet.

Did You Miss Me?

I'm fresh back from a long week at the lake. Blogging's been sparse lately as a result. I had a pretty tech-free week. Granted, I checked my email via my phone, and addressed a few of Mom's tech support issues, but otherwise was off the web for 10 days. And yes, I'm recovering nicely.

I had plenty to keep me busy though. The bunk house is pretty well set. The toilet flushes (mounted exactly 2 bays from the wall), the lights light, the fan spins, the mirror reflects, the door swings, and the metal roof sounds great in the rain. All in all a success. One minor hiccup on the beds. We built them all out of fresh (green) lumber as that's what the Amish sell for cheap and that's what the rest of the place is built from. However, it turns out that when you slap a mattress atop green lumber, it acts like a big sponge. Doh! So we dried the mattresses out and placed a vapor barrier under them. I expect they'll be dry enough by spring that this won't be necessary.

We also resurrected the boat shelter. Lots of new steel frame parts, a few new straps and supports to prevent another roof collapse. Keep your fingers crossed for a mild winter.

And finally we fixed the boat. It ran for a day and died an unrelated death. It died on my son this time, the one who swims 5000 yards a day. But he breaks down 50 feet from the dock. That's not fair. Anyway, I dragged the boat home to work on it over the winter... unless it gets stolen first. That would be an awful shame.

Oh, and speaking of swimming... yeah we did a bit of that intentionally too... but how 'bout that Michael Phelps? We do get 2 channels of Olympic coverage up there, but one is Canadian and for some reason they seem to focus a lot on minor athletes sporting maple leaf emblazoned jerseys. But we did see all of Phelps' swims. It was an amazing feat, but kind of cool to me personally as well. I was near my sons' ages when Mark Spitz swam in Munich for 7 gold medals. He was an inspiration for many of us who swam competitively back then. In a way it felt like passing the torch down to my sons who are now being inspired by Michael Phelps and his 8 golds. Not all were so inspired though. One young lady (who shall remain nameless) was mostly focused on Phelps' mom, who was just the cutest thing. But don't mind her, she's just sore because cheerleading isn't an Olympic sport... yet.

Real Men Don’t Think Things Through

It's been a while since I've been on the political soapbox, but I found that Paul Krugman's recent editorial put its finger on something I've been thinking, but haven't quite been able to put into words. I've spoken often on this blog about the dumbing down of America, but somewhere along the way the Republicans institutionalized this trend and capitalized on it. Key quote:

"...know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

Most of our current problems: the housing bubble, our deteriorating infrastructure, our dependence on foreign oil, the war in Iraq, the looming Social Security and Medicare crises, the debt position of most familes, and other issues are all borne of the inability to think long term through complex interwoven issues. My parents' generation was steeped in the ideology that sacrifice now for greater good later was the key to a good life. Most religious ideology has similar roots (although you usually have to die for your reward to come), but the idea of sowing now to reap later is core to most faiths. Are we so self-absorbed as a generation that we can't see the implications of our short-term pay-me-now philosophy on our children and grandchildren?

If something looks to good to be true, it probably is. That's why Lipozene won't make you thin, why playing Lotto doesn't count as a retirment strategy, why drilling for more oil off the coast doesn't solve our energy issues, and why kicking Saddam's butt doesn't make the Mid-East more stable.

I don't think for a minute that Obama has all the answers, but I'm encouraged that he seems to believe that progress is incremental and sometimes painful. I also worry that a likely bi-cameral majority of Democrats with a Democratic White House will yield a different but equally destructive unchecked reign of government. But at this point the Republicans are acting like children and haven't shown the maturity of judgement required to lead. I miss the pre-Reagan G.O.P., the one that was truly fiscally conservative, the one that was interested in nation-building in our own country. It balanced the Democrats' socialism and provided true choice. But not anymore.

I'd like to blame the Republicans for the slide into the "Me Generation" abyss, but I can't. They are victims of their own success. As a nation, we buy Lipozene and Lotto tickets, and we elect politicians who sell the idea that each of us can be better than average. We respond to the sound bite. We don't think things through. There was a time when politicians appealed to the best of. Asking us to ask what we can do for our country. Inspiring us to be better as a group than maybe we thought we were individually. But now they appeal to our baser instincts. They divide and conquor. They ask us to be better to ourselves than to the nation as a whole. And unfortunately they succeed with that strategy.

How does this change? Only when we change. If we buy it, they will sell it, not the other way around. Think things through, or at least follow those who you believe do. Don't fall for what makes you feel good. Don't take the easy way out. Recognize that progress is hard work and requires sacrifice. Accept that half of us will always be below average. Inspire. Aspire. Perspire.

Cheerleaders Causing Trouble

Although in this case, not the trouble you might expect. Apparently, the girls at cheer camp, having already resolved the 10-dimensional sphere packing problem, decided to attempt a higher level of math by determining packing densities of non-uniform (albeit uniformed) shapes into a cube. How many cheerleaders can you stuff into an elevator? Apparently the answer is 25.

What remains untold is how the elevator repairman explained the smirk on his face to his wife after returning from the after-hours service call.

Behold the Power of Cinnamon

I have been annoyed this summer by the trickle of teeny tiny ants crawling across my kitchen floor. Never very many. Just two or three at a time, but often several times a day. They seemed to always be near the vicinity of the glass doors out to my deck, but this is also near where my youngest son's chair is, and despite his recent entry into teen-hood, he still believes in eating in a reclined position at the table. This tends to result in potential ant bait being under his chair at any given time.

Recently, we were gone for a week . I was concerned that I would return to find lots of ants in the kitchen. However, and to my surprise and delight, there were none. However, within a day I began to see them again. True, no one had been eating while we were gone, but the door had also been closed. Perhaps they were getting around the screen? After all, being summer, it's open all the time when I'm here.

I tried spraying the sill of the door with Raid Ant Spray. That would seem to keep them out for a day or so, but the smell was awful and it only worked for a short time. I needed a better solution. A little research turned up the surprising news that ants can't stand cinnamon. The claim was that they will not cross a line of the spice.

Fortunately I had a monster size container of cinnamon in the cupboard from several years ago when one of the boys went through a brief cinnamon toast phase. So I poured a thin line in the track of the door between the glass and the screen. And what do you know! It works! And the kitchen now smells like a waffle house to boot.

It's been a week now, and I've seen a total of one ant. Presumably he was some sort of genetic mutant who lacked the fear-of-cinnamon gene. I'm not sure how often I'll need to refresh the line, but even if it's a teaspoon of cinnamon every couple of weeks, that's way better than stinky any spray or black dots roaming the kitchen floor. Cool.