What Would You Do With a Time Machine?

      I realized that the longest posts on here are those about history.  I suppose that makes sense, since history took so long to happen. 

     As a historical reenactor people often say things like, "I bet you wish you could live back then."  I usually reply that I prefer living in a time where good medicine is available.  A regular source of clean, fresh water is a plus too.  Some people suggest that I would have liked it better 500 years ago, back before the white men ever came here (they mean that my native side would like that - 500 years ago many branches of my white side were oppressed peasants).  Personally I like the guns they brought (by 1675 the Ojibwe people had more guns than the British, French, Dutch, and Spanish combined - this is known by trading post records), the iron kettles, and tin lined copper kettles (it sure beats a birch bark basket heated up with hot rocks from the fire - also although we were already copper workers, we didn't make eating or drinking vessels out of it due to copper poisoning, and we didn't know about lining it with tin to make it safe.  The Europeans had only just learned that too.  For centuries they were poisoning themselves with copper, but blaming it instead on acidic foods and things like the tomato).  I also like the knowledge they brought on iron working (by 1700 there were Ojibwe, Algonquin, Ottawa, and some Iroquois blacksmiths (smithys) scattered all along the Great Lakes Seaway - although there were iron arrowheads and spearheads made before the white invasion, these wee made from meteorite pieces, and were chipped, and not worked with a forge.  However, since we knew already how to forge implements of copper, learning to work iron was only a matter of learning how to get our fires hotter). 
      Also, unlike other native nations, the Ojibwe lived in lands that were colder and swampier than other parts of North America and it was hard to farm, so consequently we didn't suffer much white incursion until it became socially unacceptable to just chase us off.  Our treaties are treaties between two sovereign nations sharing the land, rather than a conquered people's treaty.  It also didn't hurt that some of our native neighbors who started a war or two with the whites also happened to be our mortal enemies.  When the wars came we fought our old enemies.  I won't say that we were allies to the Americans during these conflicts, because we weren't.  We just so happened to be fighting the same enemy at the same time.  For that reason we got better treaties.  It's only recently that we've learned how to get the most from those treaties. 

      Back to the matter of traveling back in time.  For the sake of the family history on my white side, maybe I could go back to about 1888 or earlier and see if there was anything that could be done to change events in Germany.  If Fritz (Kaiser Friedreich) could have been convinced to stand up against his tyrannical father and go ahead with his plans to establish a constitutional monarchy (based on the one established by his mother-in-law in England), then European history would have been changed forever.  World War 1 would have still been unavoidable, but the battle lines would have been drawn up very differently, so there would have never been a Versailles Treaty, which therefore would have never given rise to a maniac who promised release from that treaty in the form of the Nazi Party.  Besides, if the monarchy was still in power under a constitution, Hitler would have just been executed like any common, rebellious traitor, and that would have prevented a whole host of trouble.  And besides all that my family would be living a whole lot better than we are right now. 
      Nevertheless, this is really just a happy thought, because unless Fritz's constitutional monarchy could have been so firmly established to be ready to go, that it could not be reversed, all efforts would still be in vain.  Fritz spent his entire reign of 88 days as Kaiser in a hospital bed with cancer, and with his angry young son assuming control.  That's quite a hurdle.  My great-great-grandfather, his sons, and others who tried to help with establishing this would probably have still been either killed or hunted down till they came here to America anyway.  Besides, this was during the Victorian Age (called the Empire Period in other European cultures), and was a period that I just hate.  Just being in Europe during this time would have gagged me like a maggot. Other than the fact that they lost absolutely everything (and they really had a lot to loose), I think my Great-grandfather and his brother and sister were happier here in the deep woods of Northern Minnesota. 

      However, if I had to pick a time to go back to, for me it would be the beginning of the Neolithic - with the knowledge I have right now.  The Neolithic was one of the most exciting "hinge" periods of history (the 17th Century is fun, because it is also a hinge period - between the Medieval and the modern world - they had both swords and armor, and guns).  The Neolithic's first advance was the development of mass agriculture.  Providing everyone with enough to eat, so they were not spending all their time looking for their next handful of food, allowed them the time to think of other ways to make life better.  They thought of things like how to build better houses that would last more than a couple of years.  They learned how to make pottery - first to store things in, and then later for a variety of purposes.  They had time to make their boats better.  They made art.  They learned how to make cloth, and how to dye it in the same way that they used to dye their leather with just a few minor changes to the process. 

                                                One of the first cities

       They accidentally learned how to make a reddish-orange metal out of the light blue rocks out of which they carved talismans. It would have had to have been an accident, because they would have no reason to throw their precious light blue rock in the fire.  I amuse myself with the image of someone wearing one of their copper carbonate ore charms around their neck while working over the fire, and watching it with horror as it slips off their neck into the fire and melts into a puddle before their eyes.  Whoever this was probably tried for a long time to hide this incident.  Finally though, the secret was out, and the Copper Age began. 

                                                             Copper ore

                                              Beads made from copper ore


      All copper in the Old World was smelted from ore.  In North America, however, there was an abundance of 98% pure copper found in veins throughout the South Shore of Lake Superior in Northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.  There was also the phenomenon called "float copper."  Something happened in the formation of this copper that made it so full of air pockets that it floated on the waters of Lake Superior.  As late as the early 1970's people on board Great Lakes freighters still reported seeing it.  It eventually ends up washing ashore.  The Copper Age actually began here before it began in the Old World.  Nevertheless, they needed help from wayfaring travelers to get the ideas of mass agriculture, but those travelers came pretty early.  They came and joined the Solutrean-Asiatic blood mix some time before the founding of Jericho (but that story is reserved for i different post - or three).  Something kept happening here in North America though, that destroyed our civilizations, and kicked us back to the Stone Age.  At least three times in very ancient history, the cultures here advanced to a point that rivaled those civilizations of the Old World, with Mass agriculture, copper and even bronze working, and systems of writing.  Every time, something caused their civilizations to utterly collapse into the dust of the earth, and caused the people to live once again from hand to mouth, never even knowing where their next meal would come from.  At least along the Great Lakes they never forgot how to work their copper, and they never forgot how to make small, subsistence gardens.  More on these rising and collapsing civilizations, and my theories about their collapse is also material for a different post. 

Copper and bronze plates with writing unearthed during an archeological dig along the Missouri River

      If I could go back there with nothing more than the knowledge I presently have, I could do quite well.  My present knowledge of surgery, could combine with the Neolithic knowledge of natural medicines to extend life spans greatly.  Neolithic cultures know their plants way better than a modern botanist.  Sure I could make copper and bronze before anyone else, but I also know how to make a magnet, and how to use that magnet to find high content ferrous ores.  In my little civilization I would just skip right to iron age technology.  Foundries would be made of bricks made from clay.  Also, after finding some sulfur, I could make some gunpowder.  HOWEVER, these techs would be NEVER used en masse, but just enough to get by.  The civilization I would create would remain very close to nature, almost hidden away in the deep parts of the forest, and guarded from the surrounding, much more primitive civilizations.  The techs would be guarded too, and since the primitives would view them as magic, we would let them think that they are indeed magic.  All these techs would be just for the survival and comfort of our society, and would not be exploited or exported   The civilization would be a lot like the Elves of Tolkein's world, or the world of folklore.  Who knows, maybe I did go back there - those legends had to come from somewhere.  Now that would be fun. 

      
      All kidding aside, if I had to go back to any time, it would be the Neolithic.  Below are a few videos about this hinge period we call the Neolithic.  The first one is fairly short, humorous, yet still informative.  the others are each part one of a series that will take you quite some time to watch, but they are awesome.  If you like this sort of thing, you will be back here a few times to finish watching them all. 

                                                                        Short video

                                                             The Neolithic - Part 1

                                                                The Neolithic Part 2

                                                              The Neolithic Part III

                                            Stories From the Stone Age 1 - Daily Bread

                                            Stories From the Stone Age 2 - Urban Dream 

                                          Stories From the Stone Age 3 - Waves of Change 


      I hope you find these informative, enjoyable, and entertaining, 

Hydrogen Bonding, or Why Water Behaves Like Water

Science Fridays

      Almost any middle school child can tell you that the chemical name for water is H2O.  It is two atoms of hydrogen, and one atom of oxygen.  Water is essentially both a base (hydrogen hydroxide), and an acid (hydroxyl acid), as it can also be viewed as the chemical compound H-OH.  It works as both too, for it dissolves minerals from even the toughest rocks.

      Because hydrogen has only a single electron in its shell, it is highly reactive, and will react, or bond readily with other elements, especially to other hydrogen atoms.  This is what gives water its surface tension.  It's why water naturally sticks to itself, and seems to climb up other objects.  This is why there is a surface to a lake, and why you can skip rocks on a lake, and why mildly crazy people can rev up their snowmobiles and ride them out onto lakes in the summertime (yes, I have seen people do that).  This same surface tension created by the hydrogen bonding is also what water walkers and other aquatic insects can walk on the water.
      Hydrogen bonding is also the reason that water just floats around in big amorphous balls when "spilled" in outer space, such as on the Space Shuttle or the International Space Station.  So what happens if you try to wring out a wet towel in the absence of gravity?  How will the hydrogen bonding affect the process?  In the following short video, a NASA scientist aboard the ISS will show you just that. 

Fight Fire With Fire - Fight Pirates With Pirates

      The first thing that I thought when I heard about pirates attacking people in the western Indian Ocean was "Wha?  Is this story coming from WTF Radio?"  Then I thought things like, "Today?  Now?  Really?  Are you serious?  In our modern world - pirates."  Then of course a whole string of bad pirate talk went through my head.  "Argh matey (it always has to start with the - it's kind of a rule) 'ang 'im from the yard arm!  Stick 'is 'ead in the scuppers.  Arrgh!"  Then I got serious long enough to learn more about the phenomena. 
      I read and heard about how big a problem it has become for people trying to sail in that area.  I also learned that it is a problem in the east Indian Ocean too.  The area around Indonesia is rife with them as well.  Various governments don't know what they can do to combat this situation.  Sending out extra patrols would cost too much and they wouldn't want to raise taxes (except in third world dictatorships - if they were going to raise taxes it wouldn't be for fighting pirates - it would to build a new palatial estate). 
      Then my knowledge of history kicked in.  Back in the "good old days" a government could issue a "Letter of Marque" to individuals who owned a ship.  The ship with this letter became a part of the issuing government's navy, but didn't cost them anything.  This ship got "paid" in whatever prizes they could collect from enemy ships.  In other words it was like legalized piracy.  They were known as privateers. 

      This is could be the solution to the Indian Ocean pirates.  The governments to whom this is a problem could issue Letters of Marque, and these new privateers could clear the seas of these modern pirates.  they could use whatever weapons they could get their hands on, and whatever tactics they liked (for instance, they could bait them by posing as tourists in distress). 

Lunacy: a Real Cause for Concern

      Yesterday at work I sliced two of my fingers pretty bad with a razor knife, and one slice is right on the tip of an index finger, so typing right now is a real trick - and painful.  With that said, let us move on to the glorious spectacle that is The Journal of Sundry Wonderments.  

      Today's topic is crazies, i.e. crazy people, people who are nuts, off their rockers, several fries short of a Happy Meal, complete whackatrons, off their chumleys, people whose satellites are orbiting a different system Loony Tunes.  This is in no way meant to demean people who are suffering from mental illness, or to to poke fun at them.  Mental illness is serious, comes in many forms, and should definitely be dealt with and treated in some way shape or form. 
      I bring this up because in the US right now there are a lot of people lobbying to pass many different forms and degrees of gun control.  This is a response (and a natural one I'm sure) to all the weird and tragic episodes of someone going off and shooting a lot of people.  
      Some people on one end of the spectrum want all private ownership of guns to be completely banned (and there are some groups that want a ban on the ownership and use of all projectile weapons - this would include all bows, arrows, spears, atlatls, and even throwing knives and tommahawks).  They look forward to one day reading a headline in the paper that reads something like "The People Are Now Safe: The Government Has All the Guns!"  I have a big problem with that view for several reasons.  The first one being where that headline was actually seen once.  It was the headline in papers across Germany during the dictatorship of Hitler.  That headline was the beginning of hell on earth for the poor German people, no matter what racial stock they came from.  Every citizen there suffered because of it.  
      The second reason is because that view removes a major deterrent to national invasion by an enemy army.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, even warlord psychos like Tojo, Mao Tse Tung (and his cronies), and Stalin (and his cronies) never wanted to even think about daring an invasion, because they knew how well armed the American people are.  Besides having to face a regular army, and organized, legal, government sponsored militia (such as the National Guard), they would have to face a well armed, undisciplined (they would probably not be in the mood to give quarter, mercy, or take prisoners), and angry populace.  The last time a foreign army launched an attack on American soil was the British in 1812, and because of the aforementioned reasons, they soon learned that this was a huge mistake.  I like that deterrent.  That same deterrent kept the French, English, and later the American governments off the backs of the Ojibwe People.  According to traders' documentation, as early as 1675 the Ojibwe people already had more guns than the British, French, Dutch, and Spanish combined.  

                                                    Armed Ojibwe Warrior
                     
      On the other end of the spectrum are the people who are insistent that gun ownership is their constitutional right (which according to the 2nd Amendment, it is).  They do not want to see any infringement at all to the ability to procure and own arms.  
      Understanding the reasons behind the 2nd Amendment is crucial to understand its meaning.  It does not say "the right to keep and to bear deer rifles."  Nor does it say, "the right to keep and to bear duck shotguns."  The key word is "arms."  Because of this clear wording and the reasons for this amendment laid out by the founding fathers, this is where even the NRA gets it wrong.  We understand that our government here is made up of three branches, so as to have three different checks and balances to the actions of the government.  Well, the government has three branches, but there are four checks and balances to it.  The fourth one being a well armed populace.  And that's exactly what people like Thomas Jefferson said.  They made provision in the founding documents to at any time they deem necessary, the well armed populace can replace the government, should it become too corrupt.  At the time this was written, the top of the line military hardware was either a flintlock rifle or a flintlock musket with bayonet.  According to the concepts behind the 2nd Amendment "arms" today could mean not only assault weapons, but even rocket launchers, bazookas, Bradleys, tanks, or even a fighter aircraft, could you afford one.  Also, remember this: the reason there is a US in the first place is because their government then tried to take away their guns.  Their arguments with the the home nation about taxes, and adding American seats to Parliament could have gone on for decades, but the attempt to confiscate weapons started a civil war.  That's what the battle of Lexington and Concord was all about.  

                                             Lexington and Concord

      Those who hold to what they see as the middle ground want to see things like bans on handguns, assault weapons, or both.  They want to see waiting periods, and/or evaluations.  Everyone who wants the bans, or limits to gun ownership cite the statistics for deaths due to firearms.  What they fail to know is that of those firearm related deaths, something like 60% or so (I can't remember the exact percentage - it may be even higher) are suicides.  From bitter experience I know that when someone is determined to take their own life, they will, with or without a gun.  Just last week someone without access to a gun chose to end his life with carbon monoxide.  In so doing he killed three other people (I'm NOT saying, however that if someone is suicidal you should hand them a gun!  What they need is some serious counseling - and fast).  Of the remaining percentage of the statistics, the majority is crimes of passion and gangbangers.  And I seriously wonder how those gangbangers ever hit their targets, seeing as they hold their guns at such a weird angle.  
      If there were stricter laws to prevent people from acquiring guns, like more background checks, do you think that would really limit the criminals and the criminally insane from owning guns?  Would they say, "Oh well.  I've got a police record as a criminal, so I can't own guns."  The criminals will ALWAYS own guns.  If they break the law about entering your home for robbery, kidnap, or rape, do you really think they will obey a law restricting the purchase of a gun.  Breaking laws is what they do.  
      A couple incidents of the past couple of weeks should cue us in to the real problem.  A week ago two young men who had gotten religiously radical to the point of insanity blew up two bombs made out of pressure cookers, and then went on a short spree of murdering a cop, and throwing bombs and shooting at others.  The week before that a man ran through a college stabbing and cutting people up, armed with a disposable razor knife (this is a graphic arts tool, much like an exacto knife).  When captured he stated that he "just wanted to kill people."  They guy in Newtown "just wanted to kill people."  The movie theater shooter "just wanted to kill people."  And the two brothers from Chechnya "just wanted to kill American people."  Do you see the pattern?  Do you see the real epidemic?  The real problem is an epidemic of people who just want to commit mass murder.  
      There is an epidemic of crazy people.  They have a bizarre desire to kill lots of total strangers, and they will do it whether or not they have a gun.  They will use knives if they have to, or even pressure cookers.  What can be done to prevent that?  Will they ban exacto knives, or pressure cookers?  I have a couple different sized pressure cookers and I use them all the time.  I use the big one to can vegetables or soups, and the little one I use for potatoes, or stewing hens, among other things.  Will someone have to form the NPCA - the National Pressure Cooker Association to lobby for the right to keep and to bear pressure cookers?  
      What events like this show us is that law abiding citizens need even more to be well armed for their own protection.  They also show us that the real issue isn't to limit gun ownership, but to limit crazy people from walking around without their leash.  In what are often called "the good olde days" crazy people were locked up (and usually in shackles) in the attic, or cellar, or the funky little room under the stairs.  

      I don't advocate that, but I definitely advocate treatment for the mentally ill.  We can't wait for the crazies to come in by themselves and say, "hey I'm going nuts, you gotta help me."  They try to hide it, especially from their own selves.   It has to be noticed, reported, and there needs to be a constitutionally secure way to go about demanding their treatment.  Just like in the present legal system, many reports might just be wrong or a misunderstanding, and the reported person will be allowed to go on their merry way, but sometimes they will discover someone who has the potential to become real dangerous.  
      We also need to limit organizations that recruit crazy people for their own benefit.  This includes people who see themselves as a future dictator somewhere, the gangs that recruit people that are depressed (probably clinically - see above), neo-nazis, and those who are religiously radical to the point of insanity. 
      Don't limit guns, limit crazy people. 
      ______________________________________________________________________

     B.T.W.  I see that although there are many people reading this blog, nobody has had any comments at all.  As far as I know, the option for adding comments is not blocked but open and free to anyone.   I would like to know what you readers think.  I would like to know what posts you like, and what doesn't work so well for you.  
      My posts are extremely varied.  There are history posts, living history posts, science posts, primarily paleontology and astronomy, crafts/rustic living posts, and posts that are generally just rants about something or other.  
      The rant posts tend to be injected with humor throughout, whereas the academic style posts are pretty much humor free, with the occasional sarcasm or very dry joke that most people would miss completely.  I also use a lot of colloquialisms and since most of my readers are actually not from around here I wonder how you deal with those, especially those of you from another country or culture.  
      I would like to hear some of your feedback. 

Is Technology Making Us Dumber? 

      I was watching a commercial today during NASCAR and it was for a really good safety app for your phone.  You set the app when you are about to drive, and if someone tries to text you, their text is blocked, and the phone sends an automatic message saying, "I can't text right now.  I am driving."  An app like this has the potential to save a lot of lives.
      Now for the people who need an app like this the most - the 16 - 25 year old group - would they really use it?  Could we actually get them to pry their hands off of their phones enough to drive.  Would their addiction allow them to activate the app in the first place?  I hope so.  Or would we have to make the activation automatic too.  Maybe it would have to be motion activated like those door locks that many models of cars have.
      You see, technology is not making mankind any smarter, and it is certainly not making the human race any more responsible.  That's the way that it works now.  People are either too dumb to fasten their seat belts, too lazy, or just plain scatterbrained, due to going overboard on the multi-tasking.   To fix this problem the car will have the technology to work around the driver.  The driver will never have to think again about door locks or seat belts again.  They won't even have to decide to use them, as the decision has already been made for them.  That's one more out of the way.  

      It's the same thing with those automatic flushers on toilets and urinals.  It was all too common in public rest rooms that people wouldn't flush after using them.  They just left their prizes there for the next person to gag over.     Maybe they had delusions of grandeur and thought they had servants of some kind - or minions.  Ever since these automatic flushers became common the restrooms without them, the incidents of not flushing has increased.  People didn't have to think about it any more, so they didn't.  Now maybe they can use their brains for something more constructive - like watching cat videos on their I-phones.  As a species, we really are going down hill, aren't we?  How ironic; we are smart enough to invent an automatic fusher, but too dumb to flush a toilet.  Maybe the next thing our fallen race will need is something  to automatically wipe their dirty bottoms after using theses toilets - or maybe something to wipe their noses.
      Is our advanced technology taking away our ability to make simple decisions?  It seems as though we are becoming just another item riding on our conveyor belts we created. 
     

Another Two Feet of Snow!  Are You Kidding me?!

      I haven't been able to post much these past two weeks, because I have been spending most of my time shoveling snow.  Because of the white crap, I missed two days of work this week.  On Monday, due to the accompanying high winds I had some drifts that were knee deep and right across my driveway.  On the 12th, driving in to work took twice as along as normal, and then when I got there I had a service call over 100 miles away.  That made for a long day.  
       Being late season snows, they are heavy and wet - the kind that sticks to the shovel when you try to throw it.  Then this past Friday the weatherman forecasted another few inches.  Well, he was wrong again.  It turned out to be over two feet, with some drifting that was deeper.  
      I was starting to think that this was totally contradicting my earlier post about regular, cyclical global temperature changes.  I stated that it is indeed getting warmer, but this much snow in later April makes it look like we're entering an ice age.  If it keeps snowing like this a massive glacier will form over my house.  It will eventually crush me and my house and in a thousand years deposit our pulverized remains out onto the Great Plains.  Weather like this has Minnesotans ask in pain, "Where is this global warming they promised?  Curses to you Al Gore.  Your Chicken Little sqawking got our hopes up for nothing!" 

                                           My car in the driveway on Friday 

                                                                 Another view

      Yes, we here in Minnesota have been looking forward to global warming for as long as the theory first came out.  Lake Superior could become an exotic resort area, like the French Riviera.  Being inhabited though, of mostly conservative, Scandinavian stock, our beaches would most likely never be clothing optional.  Although they might say they would like it, the average Norwegian-, Finnish-, or Polish-American would be a bit freaked out by it. 
      We up this far north would also welcome being able to grow a greater variety of things in our gardens.  Right now what grows best for us are root vegetables (carrots, turnips, potatoes, and rutabagas), green beans, peas, cabbage, broccoli, pumpkins and squash.  Our presently short (but we are hoping) growing season makes it difficult to get a good batch of sweet corn, and tomatoes are just a fight against nature. 
      Up here we can't get corn or beans to mature fully into seed, so they have to all be harvested in their "green" state.  Most grain doesn't make it to maturity either.  Then IF you get a decent crop of something in your garden - IF - the white tail deer find out and telepathically tell the whole herd for a couple mile radius that you have goodies, and they descend upon your poor, climatically fragile garden. 
      You could sit there and guard your harvest, or leave your dog outside to guard it for you, but the deer know something.  They know you and your dog will eventually have to sleep - sometime.  And they are patient.  They will wait.  I'll put in a fence, you say.  How high do you want to make it?  These deer can easily jump fourteen feet - and they have fun doing it.  They have even more fun just wrecking your fence, and watching try to mend it afterward.  When you survey the damage they have done to both your fence and your winter's food supply, and they see your anguish, as you scream, or maybe even cry, they sit out in the woods and snicker.  I know.  I've heard them.  There's not much that is more sickening than the sarcastic snicker of a White Tail deer.
      At least they won't touch your cucumbers or squash - they won't even go through a patch of it.  You can protect the things they see as "prizes" by surrounding it with a patch of the prickly vines.  It's all a part of the fight. 
      That's why I gave up on gardens several years ago.  Why work my butt off to feed them when there is plenty of things out in the woods to just go out and harvest.  The battling to grow this stuff is out of your hands.  Just go pick it.  We have various berries, hazel nuts, and manoomin (wild rice).  And the deer don't or can't eat these things.
      I always imagine that the people living around Lake Baikal, or in Omga, or Ojmjakon would feel the same way about global warming.  They probably look forward to it like we do here in northern Minnesota. 
      Fighting the deer for a head of cabbage or a rutabaga just isn't worth it.  If things warm up around here though, and I can grow something besides the standard fare, then the fight might be worth it.