08:42 – We made a lot of progress yesterday getting the inventory/workroom cleared out and organized. The shelves are up, and there’s stuff stacked on them. It’s not properly organized yet, but it’s up off the floor and it won’t be difficult to get it arranged. We still have to move furniture downstairs today and move a work table upstairs, but we’ll get that done.
The lead article in the paper this morning was about one of the most annoying aspects of our society: taxpayers taking the risks and losses while corporations reap the profits. Of course, the article didn’t state it that way. Instead, it praised Wake Forest University scientists who’ve come up with a new lighting technology that may generate half a billion dollars a year in patent licensing revenue. As I’ve said many times before, there needs to be a simple rule: any university or individual researcher that accepts federal research funding cannot benefit financially from the results of that research. The rewards from that research should flow to the people who paid for it. The taxpayers. It’s not a new idea. Any scientist working for a corporation signs a document that grants the corporation all rights to that scientist’s work.
11:47 – All of the furniture we needed to move is moved. I emptied out drawers and cleared the tops of the dressers totally without ruth. Barbara was probably shocked. I’m sure she was pleased. At one point, she shouted “I’m so happy!” She’s not used to me throwing anything out. As a side benefit of all this discarding, I found not one but two unused tobacco pouches. So now the inventory/workroom is pretty well cleared out. All that remains is to get stuff up on the shelves and organized.
We used three boxes: keep, trash/recycling and Goodwill. A lot of stuff that I almost trashed ended up in the Goodwill box–obsolescent/obsolete motherboards, memory, processors, PATA optical drives and cables, video cards, and so on. But then I realized that Goodwill builds/rebuilds computers for people who can’t afford current models, so some of this stuff might actually be useful to them.
Agreed, 200%.
Hey SteveF; you could have a new neighbor Real Soon Now:
“She and her husband would like to buy a house in the Hamptons or upstate New York…”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/us/politics/hillary-clintons-countless-choices-could-hinge-on-2016-election.html?_r=0
Just out of curiosity, do you have a dedicated labelmaker mini-printer? What brand? Might be handy for labelling those boxes as well as kit components.
Here’s a shoplifting idea that will only work once.
http://indianaeconomicdigest.com/main.asp?FromHome=1&TypeID=1&ArticleID=67688&SectionID=31&SubSectionID=235
Bunch of thieves entered a Best Buy in Evansville each with boxes within boxes. They bought one very expensive item, but collectively had crammed 41 iPods and MP3 players into the larger box and made off with a fairly big heist. What is puzzling is that the article claims the store’s security cameras did not capture any suspicious activity in removing the players from the shelves. That truly is a magic trick. It is hard to believe that the checkout people would not get suspicious when multiple people put their purchases into their own boxes.
Article also says that we the consumers pay for this kind of theft with increased prices to compensate the stores. This is another one of those claims I rebel against. I have a very good friend who was an MP in Nam, and went into store security way back in the ’70’s. He now works for one of the largest retailers in the nation. He told me that line was just PR bullshit to deter other people from shoplifting. In actuality, he said, the market is set by the firm who can sell at the lowest price. Other retailers cannot be too far above that price, or they will not sell the goods. So, competition sets the price—not any kind of increase to make up for shoplifting theft,—whereas shoplifting actually cuts their profit margins directly. That is why store security has become such a big deal over the years, because the chain with the lowest theft numbers has bigger margins. There is so much subterfuge out there, standing in the way of actual truth.
I am very proud of my brother in Christ, Pat Robertson:
ahttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/07/bill-nye-pat-robertson-science-age-earth_n_2245635.html
People keep on confusing the Bible with a historical document, it is not. The Bible is a user manual for an extremely complex machine, the human being.
I need a redo since I cannot delete or edit:
I am very proud of my brother in Christ, Pat Robertson:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/07/bill-nye-pat-robertson-science-age-earth_n_2245635.html
People keep on confusing the Bible with a historical document, it is not. The Bible is a user manual for an extremely complex machine, the human being.
Mr. Robertson and the Holy Fathers in Rome have all given science and archaeology credit for this particular issue, many times over the decades. How could they not, really? But they all keep getting slammed from one side or the other regardless.
“People keep on confusing the Bible with a historical document, it is not. ”
Not in its entirety, no; but parts of it are decidedly historical as keeps being found out by archaeologists and scientists and historians and linguists, et. al. The problem arises when some of our brothers and sisters in Christ insist on inerrancy on the one side, and on the other when believers in scientism-as-religion insist that it is all total malarkey. Also a problem when a particular group takes one book (like Revelation) or one phrase (“thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” “thou shalt take up serpents,” etc.) to the exclusion of everything else in the library of books that is the Bible. So they look like maniacs and fools and the other side of unbelievers and suchlike throw us all in the same pot and condemn us entirely as maniacs and fools.
I’m a bit surprised that the 800 pound gorilla hasn’t weighed in yet… 🙂
As I’ve said many times, Christianity and science don’t have to be in conflict. It’s only the extremists on both sides that go looking for conflict.
Agreed, Greg.
“Barbara was probably shocked. I’m sure she was pleased. At one point, she shouted “I’m so happy!” She’s not used to me throwing anything out.”
I’m having to get used to that. I’ll be moving to Adelaide next year so I have a house full of junk I have to ditch. I got into practice this morning by throwing out a sock (singular). The hole in it was large enough for three toes to poke through, so I decided it was time to bid it a fond farewell. I kept it’s mate though, one never knows when one will need a spare sock.
Greg, I’m sorry to have to be the bearer of bad news, but someone has to let you know.
It’s time you cut your your toenails.