Month: July 2023

Braunschweiger Slices a Big Winner!

Sena bought a package of Jones Dairy Farm Braunschweiger slices recently and made a great lunch of sandwiches with Miracle Whip and a side of Korean Kewpie Mayo Corn dish. She asked me first whether I wanted to try the sandwiches with cheese instead of Braunschweiger. My friend Dr. George Dawson prefers cheese instead of Braunschweiger with Miracle Whip on his sandwiches.

I had to think hard about it, but I chose the Braunschweiger slices—this time. Maybe cheese next time.

Anyhow, Braunschweiger or cheese with Miracle Whip are guaranteed preferred items on sandwiches according to the U.S. Constitution, as quoted below from Article VIII:

In order to establish the items of choice for the perfect sandwiches we do hereby recommend Braunschweiger or the cheese of your liking, preferably with Miracle Whip salad dressing as soon as it is invented, by our estimate not sooner nor later than 1933 according to the founding fathers who are from a different galaxy where time travel has been mastered and which enables them to make accurate predictions about the future—Benjamin “Bud” Franklin.

Glad I could clear that up. Braunschweiger slices, along with many other tasty foods, is made at Jones Dairy Farm in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. It’s reachable by either via U.S. Highway 151 N or I-80 E and I-88 E.

I suggest taking U.S. Highway 151 N because it is more scenic and avoids the tolls on the other route. Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, is close by and is also worth seeing.

Cribbage Pro Computer Game Demo on Brutal Level!

Sena and I enjoy cribbage. I sometimes practice using computer games. You might remember my video about Cribbage Classic last year. The other day I did a demonstration of gameplay on another game called Cribbage Pro. The developer is Fuller Systems, Inc.

It has 3 levels of difficulty: Standard (which you might call easy); Challenging; and Brutal. The developer of Cribbage Pro says that the Brutal level makes virtually no mistakes. It’s tough to beat. I won 3 in a row and then lost 2 before winning the 6th game. Fuller Systems, Inc. follows American Cribbage Congress (ACC) rules.

It’s a nice way to learn cribbage, play casual mode, or play against others on line in multiplayer mode, although I’ve never done the latter.

You can learn a lot about cribbage from playing Cribbage Pro. It has a tutorial and numerous other teaching resources for learning how to play either just for fun or with the goal of playing in tournaments.

It has a Muggins Rule Mode, which lets you count your scores manually and challenge the computer if it makes an error in its own scoring. Then you pick up the difference in score yourself. I’ve read that some cribbage experts say Muggins is mainly for people who like to argue. I’ve tried to play Muggins on Cribbage Pro, but frankly could never understand the procedure. However, among the numerous settings available you can count manually without activating the Muggins Rule.

Cribbage Pro is available for many platforms. It’s free if you can put up with ads. I paid $5 to get rid of ads. But the game itself has popups to remind you to either register to play in multiplayer mode or to rate the game. I’ve given it a favorable rating.

Watch Out for Spaghettification on Skinwalker Ranch!

I’m not up to speed on the math of black hole portal wormhole vortices and whatnot, but I think the actors on The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch need to be careful what kind of incendiary devices they’re tossing into the Triangle Area.

I barely got through the general physics introductory course at Iowa State University. I remember the momentum lab experiments—barely. My lab partner showed up late because he was really hung over. I think he asked me if I ever partied and I said I had pretty much outgrown that kind of thing. He looked at me like he was shocked and exclaimed, “You mean this crap ends?”

On the other hand, despite his hangover he grasped the momentum math better than I did.

I’m still trying to figure out why one of the actors said “A black hole?” when somebody posed the question “What does that thing look like?” referring to what looked like a black hole at ground level following a LiDAR imaging test in the Triangle Area. I didn’t know you could find black holes with LiDAR.

There was also the suggestion of funnels in the air above the black hole, leading to the team wondering if it was a portal leading to a wormhole. Everybody got excited about it, and wondered if it might explain all the weird stuff happening on the ranch. Could there be monsters, extraterrestrials, orbs, and Braunschweiger with Miracle Whip sandwiches zipping in and out of these things?

It got me looking around on the internet to find out whether black holes and wormholes could be the same thing. It turns out some scientists think there could be black hole portals on one end and white hole portals on the other end of wormholes, which I think means you get spaghettified on one end and reassembled on the other.

However, this could mean you have to be wary of spaghettification if you try to travel to another dimension through a wormhole. You don’t have to take my word for it (and you shouldn’t!). Just ask physics professors Leo and Shanshan Rodriguez at Grinnell College in Iowa. Black holes swallow up everything that comes within spitting distance from them, stretch them way out so they resemble noodles and eventually destroy you.

The only thing you can do then is call Chuck Norris, who routinely eats black holes with Braunschweiger and Miracle Whip for lunch (they taste like chicken) and farts them into another galaxy far, far away. Chuck’s side hustle is to work part time at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) where he is a part time janitor, sweeping up the little black holes it sometimes generates. That black hole the LHC created in 2012 which swallowed reality didn’t stand a chance against Chuck, who gargled it and spat reality back out.

This goes back to Einstein’s theory of general relativity of course, which proves by advanced, hyper galactic step over toe hold jujitsu level mathematical formulas that the stitches in the fabric of spacetime get all warped leading to a crazy strong gravitational pull involving stirrup pants that stretch you enough to motivate some men to spend any amount of money to increase their penis size including subjecting themselves to black holes such that they would need a carryon bag to haul it through Chicago O’Hare and believe spaghettification is just the trick although airport security has yet to devise how they can get it through the screening machine in order to avoid pat down searches which can not only tickle but also delay passenger boarding and lead to mass hallucinations of a big UFO similar to the O’Hare event in 2006, which was actually caused by a weather event according to men in black suits posing as FAA agents at the airport.

Does anybody else have a sudden craving for pasta?

Yowie the Tree Hugger!

I saw the Bigfoot episode of The Proof is Out There last Friday which purportedly showed thermal images of two Yowies, the Australian version of Bigfoot. I was shocked when host Tony Harris said the video was either a hoax or possibly Yowies—and went with “Possibly Yowies.”

Interesting name, “Yowie.” It sounds like something I’d yell if I accidentally touched a stovetop burner. Actually, a Wikipedia article about it says it was originally called “Yahoo,” which is something I might yell if I won the lottery.

Supposedly the thermal imaging shows two Yowies hugging a tree. The tree looked pretty skinny. I would think that a 9-foot tall, 800 lb. cryptid would crush rather than hug such a little tree. And will someone please tell me why DNA evidence, footprints, or poop samples were not obtained?

I quickly glanced at a few web articles which said there’s no physical evidence for the existence of the Yowie in Australia. I’m thinking it’s high time we capture one with a method that is guaranteed to work. Here’s how you catch a Yowie:

First you dig a hole and fill it with ashes. Carefully place peas around the hole. When the Yowie comes up to take a pea, kick him in the ash hole.

Then we can start serious scientific study of the critter. The first thing you have to learn is not to call it a critter, which is undignified. The proper title would be Sir Cryptid Yahoo Yowie, Esq.

Test whether it prefers beef jerky, vegemite, or politicians for lunch.

We might start by teaching Sir Yowie how to dance. No doubt you’ll recall the 1974 documentary film “Young Frankenstein” in which the Frankenstein monster does a pretty fair job of tap dancing.

See if Sir Yowie can learn how to juggle. One problem might be that it could be better at basketball, given its height and strength. You juggle while Yowie dribbles. Don’t argue.

See if it can learn to play cribbage. However, a crisis could arise if you don’t let it win the big annual American Cribbage Congress tournament (I think it’s in Virginia Beach, VA this year). How would you calm down a giant who smells like it needs a diaper change?

Remember That Manual Edger Last Year?

OK, so remember that dual wheel manual edger I bought last July? It’s a Yardworks 54-inch wood handle dual wheel edger. Remember that so you never buy one yourself.

 The wheel lining started tearing off in pieces just like the old one before it. The new one was a replacement for the edger that provided about 12 years of service before it failed.

How do you like that? It was a replay of what happened last year. I just finished the job with the replacement the other day. It rolled pretty rough and I looked at the wheel, which was shredded.

It lasted one season last summer and a few edging jobs this season. It had a 15-year limited warranty. I wonder what the word “limited” signifies.

Once again, I had to run over to Menards to get a new one. They didn’t have any other brand but the one I got last year. I exchanged it. It’s the same brand and has the same 15-year limited warranty.

Any bets on how long this one will last?

There are benefits of a manual edger. Traditionalists extol the virtues of sustainability, zero emissions (unless you develop gas yourself and you fart while you work), and they’re less pricey. You never have to worry about gasoline, they don’t take up much space, and, according to some people, they last years longer than any motorized tool. You can’t necessarily always believe the hype. Some hardware stores don’t even know what a manual edger is; I found that out last year.

That doesn’t mean you should haul off and spend a lot of cash on something a lot more sophisticated. I’m not endorsing just any list for best manual edgers because the lists seem to be biased toward particular hardware stores. One list of the best manual edgers focuses only on step edger models with crescent shaped blades. Maybe I should consider them. They look easy to use but I’m a little concerned they might cut too deep, maybe into something I don’t want to cut. There is one method that involves using a step edger, a shovel, and a broom. It’s mainly for sidewalks that are heavily overgrown with turf. I never let it get that bad.

It can be hard to get through a list of best manual lawn edgers. I get pretty tired of the pop-up ads they fire at you so much you can’t even see the list. I could find one list of best dual wheel edgers and it was for 2022. It’s on a web site called Bestadvisordotcom. It gives the pros and cons of five rotary edgers and holds up the Ames Companies, Inc. 28112200 True Temper Dual-Wheel Rotary Edger as number one. All five have between a 10–15-year warranty. Three were possibly out of stock and I consider them relatively pricey at around $60-$70.

If this replacement dual wheel rotary edger I got a few days ago at Menards goes bad again, I might go with a crescent blade manual step edger. Menards sells them but I’ll avoid the one made by Yardworks. There’s an alternative with a 28-inch handle which might work.

Your thoughts?

Thoughts on Battery Powered Toothbrushes

Sena bought a couple of Equate Polaris Vibraclean non-replaceable battery-powered toothbrushes with charcoal bristles (see below for remarks on charcoal) for us. When the battery dies, you just throw the brushes away. We had a rechargeable electric toothbrush a long time ago, but getting replacement parts for it was too expensive. We went back to manual toothbrushes.

You just press the on button and you’re buzzing. You press the off button when you’re done. It’s a little tough to refrain from trying to manually brush, but the internet entries say you should do that anyway.

Sena says the battery-powered toothbrush feels weird rumbling in her mouth. I think it does a good job of massaging the gums and tongue as well as cleaning teeth.

I found a couple of studies published about twenty years ago that compared electric and battery-powered toothbrushes. They didn’t find any difference. The few studies that have been done generally find the battery-powered toothbrushes are superior to manual brushing.

The American Dental Association (ADA) says either manual or electric brushing works fine—compared to not brushing at all, I guess. The ADA web site has list of the organization’s preferred electric products. The Equate brand of battery powered brushes apparently didn’t make the cut.

Some brushes (including ours) have charcoal bristles, which supposedly whiten teeth. After looking on the internet, I’m not so sure that’ll work. In fact, the ADA has a low opinion of charcoal-containing dental care products. There’s no evidence that they’re effective or even safe, according to the September 2017 issue of The Journal of the American Dental Association. They might even wear away the enamel.

Hmmm. Maybe charcoal is not the best thing?

The brushes were a bargain—oh well, back to manual brushing. On the other hand, there’s plenty of evidence that regular brushing with toothpaste along with flossing is good practice.

Wormhole Vortex Portal at Skinwalker Ranch!

I watched The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch the other night and the investigators got really excited over seeing what they called a wormhole portal in the Triangle area of the ranch. Somehow, it was detected by LiDAR, which stands for light detection and ranging. It measures distance using light instead of sound like radar does.

I didn’t know you could use LiDAR to detect wormholes.

Anyway, the whole team including Travis got so worked up about it the show got interrupted so that all the actors (I mean investigators) could calm down by mindfulness meditation. It was better than finding a mutilated cow.

Prior to finding the wormhole, they had guys shooting rockets, flamethrowers, and electricity bolts into the sky at about the 30-foot level where weird things usually happen, like orbs.

You never see much beside orbs. I’m not sure how you think of an orb of light as a UFO or spaceship that could be drivable by an extraterrestrial. I can’t imagine a humanoid fitting into an orb and operating it even with something like a car with a push button transmission. Remember those? When I was a kid, we had a friend who got one. She was really proud of it. I think it was a Chrysler from the 1950s.

I’m not sure where they’ll go with the wormhole thing now. Would they ever try to enter the wormhole? I thought wormholes destroyed everything that got too close to them.

They’ve been stuck for so long to come up with something different to give viewers the idea that there’s something really paranormal out there that they’ve had to add an extra show, Beyond Skinwalker Ranch. I haven’t watched it; it comes on a little late at night for me.

Next week they’re going to have the Utah State Attorney General as a guest star again out to the ranch. It looks like the military is out there buzzing the area with various black helicopters and generally getting everybody indignant and all worked up. Why should the military care what they’re doing? After all, it’s not illegal to shoot hobby rockets, flame throwers, and electricity bolts at the air, even if it might have a wormhole not covered by insurance in it.

What’s Up with Shared Clinical Decision Making for the RSV Vaccine?

There are probably some questions about the new Respiratory Syncitial Virus (RSV) vaccine. Because I’ve seen TV commercials about the new website RSVandMe, I checked on a few things the other day.

The RSVandMe website and the companion website are both produced by the RSV vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). As such, I consider them marketing commercials.

I checked the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website and saw that the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended approval of the RSV vaccine at their June Meeting (covered earlier on this blog):

Adults 60 years of age and older may receive a single dose of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine, using shared clinical decision-making.

The term “shared clinical decision-making” is clarified on the CDC webpage at this link.

The upshot of shared clinical decision-making is that it’s up to the provider (the list of providers include pharmacists). So far the list of recommended vaccines does not yet include RSV, so it probably needs updating. It looks like the ACIP MMWR recommendation page also needs updating.

Beat the Heat with Cold Snap and Common Sense

Sena likes to be out in the garden no matter how blisteringly hot it is. A few days ago, she was planting some yellow coreopsis and lantana, whatever that is. It was 82 degrees and with the heat index (about 60% humidity), it felt like 86 degrees. Later in mid-afternoon it rose to 95 degrees with the heat index.

She came in for a break to get some cold water and suddenly remembered the cooling cloth called “Cold Snap” you can wear around your neck to stay cooler outside. You just run it under cold water from the tap and wrap it around your neck.

She also put on her headband to keep the sweat out of her eyes to prevent her tear ducts from plugging up. That happened a longish time ago. She had a lot of tearing, and went to the eye clinic where a faculty ophthalmologist thought she might have a more complicated problem than a blocked tear duct (nasolacrimal duct obstruction).

The Cleveland Clinic differential diagnoses of a blocked tear duct include infection, injury, or nasal and paranasal tumors. Just getting older can make your more susceptible to blocked tear ducts. Procedures include the polysyllabic dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR, in which a bypass ductal drainage system is created) or alternatively, something which sounds like a last resort, the punctal plug.

The ophthalmologist recommended a complicated diagnostic and surgical treatment pathway the name of which she can’t remember (possibly something like those mentioned above) and said it was probably the only intervention that would work. Sena took exception to this and asked for something simpler. They arm wrestled, best two out of three, and Sena won.

So, the ophthalmologist finally just used a needle and syringe full of water and hosed the puncta. He and Sena both heard a small popping noise, and the obstruction was removed. The ophthalmologist was astonished and said it was a good teaching case for the residents. The problem was likely grime related to sweat and dirt—hence her use of a headband. She also uses baby shampoo to wash her eyes nowadays.

She never complains about the heat outside. She just gets out there in the garden and often stays out most of the day—no matter how worried I get about her.

There are ways to be heat aware in summer. The ReadyIowa web site on heat is a great resource.

Maybe I Should Be More Optimistic About Humans

I read the Psychiatric Times article “How Psychiatry Has Enriched My Life: A Journey Beyond Expectations” by Victor Ajluni, MD and published on July 4, 2023. It was like a breath of fresh air to read an expression of gratitude. Just about everything I read in the news is negative.

At the end of the article, Dr. Ajluni added a comment acknowledging that artificial intelligence (AI ChatGPT) assisted him in writing it. He takes full responsibility for the content, to be sure. I wouldn’t have guessed that AI was involved.

There’s a lot of negative stuff in the news. There are hysterically alarming headlines about AI.

I suppose you could wonder if Dr. Aljuni’s article is intentionally ironic, maybe just because the gratitude tone is so positive.  If it had been intended as irony, what could the AI contribution have been, though? I have a pretty low opinion of the AI capacity for irony.

I think irony occurs to me only because I tend to be pessimistic about the human race.

Maybe that’s because it has been very easy to be pessimistic about what direction human nature seems to be taking in recent years. I’ve been reading Douglas Adams’ satirical book, “The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” It contains several of his books which I think are really about human nature, and the setting is in a funny though often terrifying universe. I think there’s an ironic tone which softens the pessimism. The most pessimistic character is not a human but a robot, Marvin the paranoid android.

Unlike Marvin, I don’t have “a brain the size of a planet” (it’s more the size of a chickpea), but I am getting a bit cynical about the universe. I’m prone to regarding humans as evolving into a race of beings similar to those described in the book “Life, The Universe and Everything.” In Chapter 24, Adams describes the constantly warring Silastic Armorfiends of Striterax.

The Silastic Armorfiends are incredibly violent. Their planet is in ruins because they’re constantly fighting their enemies, and indeed, each other. In fact, the best way to deal with a Silastic Armorfiend is to lock him in a room by himself—because eventually he’ll just beat himself up.

In order to cope better, they tried punching sacks of potatoes to get rid of aggression. But then, they thought it would be more efficient to simply shoot the potatoes instead.

They were the first race to shock a computer, named Hactar. Possibly, Hactar was an AI because, when they told Hactar to make the Ultimate Weapon so they could vanquish all their enemies, Hactar was shocked. Hactar secretly made a tiny bomb with a flaw that made it harmless when the Silastic Armorfiends set it off. Hactar explained “…that there was no conceivable consequence of not setting the bomb off that was worse than setting it off…”, which was why it made the bomb a dud. While Hactar was explaining that it hoped the Silastic Armorfiends would see the logic of this course of action—they destroyed Hactar, or at least thought they had.

Eventually, they found a new way to blow themselves up, which was a relief to everyone in the galaxy.

There are similarities between Hactar and the AI called Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence (V.I.K.I.) in the movie “I, Robot.” The idea was that robots must control humans because humans are so self-destructive. Only that meant robots had to hurt humans in order to protect humanity. The heroes who eventually destroy V.I.K.I. make up a team of misfits: a neurotic AI named Sonny, a paranoid cop who is himself a mixture of robot and human, and a psychiatrist. Together, the team finally discovers the flaw in the logic of V.I.K.I. Of course, this leads to the destruction of V.I.K.I.—but also to the evolution of Sonny who learns the power of the ironic wink.

Maybe kindness is the Ultimate Weapon.