Close the Door!

How many times has someone yelled at you to close the door? How many times have you yelled at your kids to close the door?

I recently met a man who has a very helpful occupation. He tests your house to see how well it's keeping in the heat when it's cold outside, or how well it's keeping in the cold when it's hot outside. His name is Lee Cotten and he is the owner of Idaho Thermal Imaging. He has a device that he uses to scan your home for heat-leaks in the winter, or cool air leaks in the summer. On his website you can see pictures of the trouble spots most homes have for heat transfer. You'll be amazed at some of these pictures. 

Better yet, lee has effective solutions for sealing out the cold (or conversely sealing in the cool air in summer). Sure comes in handy in Idaho for thosetimes when the heater (or AC) seems to be kicking on all the time. 

Those of you with older homes that have wood-burning fireplaces typically lose the amount of heat equivalent to leaving a window open 365 days a year. Or almost like leaving the door open year round, imagine the yelling? Lee has a range of services to keep you warm in winter and cool in the summer. Both of those prospects are nice, but what is really great about Lee is that he'll keep your heating dollars from leaking out of your wallet as well. "Stay warm and save money" Sounds pretty cool to me. 

Detecting Quantum Phenomena

How do you detect the effects of quantum mechanics? Start with a metric ton of aluminum and make it very cold...

Just what are the effects of quantum mechanics?, you ask and it's an interesting question. To discuss it we have to rouse Schrodinger's Cat, a thought experiment that has a cat in a sealed box with some uranium. Uranium decays and releases deadly radiation. Once the radiation is detected a vial of poison is smashed inside the box releasing a gas and killing the cat. However, the cat can be said to be alive and dead at the same time until we open the box to see if the uranium has decayed or not. 

It is an experiment designed to show that we cannot know the out come of a random event without making an observation, and therefore the determination  of the outcome is dependent on it being observed. Were you around to hear that tree fall? This is called the Copenhagen Interpretation. Even Einstein had a lot of trouble with this. Either the cat is dead, or the cat is still alive, it can't be both at once right? 

Many in the world believe the way to observe matter existing in two places or states at the same time is to catch it in the act. In order to do this one needs to make matter so cold that the vibration of its sub atomic particles nearly stops, slowing it down so that one can see it in both states at the same time. Some researchers in Podova, Italy (A bit South and West of Venice) have cooled that block of aluminum alloy (weighing a metric ton) to within a few millionths of a degree of absolute zero. They are trying to detect waves of gravity from far off cosmic events, such as the collision of two of black holes. Because the aluminum rings like a bell at the slightest touch, it is thought that the vibration from a quantum event, like the decay of an isotope, could be detected as it evolves from one state to another. If this proves out, it could help us better understand the arena of the very small and it's relationship to the arena of the very large--the one in which we live. 

Here's the article if you want to get into the technicalities of it. Even though you are much warmer, it might make your head ring trying to think about it. 

A Culture of Responsibility

Now that all the hoopla is pretty much over, and it's time to get down to work, President Obama needs to be more specific. I've listened to the man speak, and he is an amazing orator. But I have to take issue with the fact that his speeches, inspiring as they may be, leave me at a loss in his vagueness. 

I've been listening to the rhetoric coming out of the new president. While the mere mention of the word "rhetoric" may lead one to think that I am naysaying the message of our new chief executive, nothing could be further from the truth. 

There is one statement coming from our new leader that I have been hearing repeated in the media over the last couple of days. If someone would explain to me how you can "embrace a new culture of responsibility," that would be great.

 If one were to look at this from an entitlement perspective, he or she might be lead to believe that those who had benefitted most from the blessings of capitalism should take on the responsibility of taking care of those who are not willing to take advantage of the freedom our system allows. The view of the other side of this coin is a very different hope for our society. It is the hope that those who have been taking advantage of a perversion of the purpose of law, will now begin to carry their own water, so to speak. You may wonder what I mean by a perversion of the purpose of the law. 

Our constitution says we are born with unalienable rights. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are natural rights. It tells us to defend our lives and our property. In other words we have a right to the things we produce to make our lives better. If you go into your garage, or storage closet, and look at all the stuff in there, you will come to understand that you produced all those things. You may not have physically produced it all, but in essence you did, because you traded your productive abilities and time for the productive abilities and time of others; unless you stole it all, in which case, you should turn yourself in to the police because you have violated someone's right to the pursuit of their happiness. It is the purpose of the law to protect the rights of individuals, not groups or classes of people, individuals. 

So what happens when those who make the laws say that someone you don't know, who doesn't have your productive ability, has a right to your production. The lawmaker has just sanctioned slavery and theft, and you are the slave and the victim. Sounds pretty harsh, right? But what is slavery? Slavery is forcing an individual, against their will, be it at the end of a whip, the point of a gun or the threat of imprisonment, to produce something for the benefit of another. I'm hoping this isn't the culture of responsibility President Barak Obama is talking about.

The press seems intent on comparing our new President to another President who eliminated slavery. If it becomes a productive person's "responsibility" to pay for a non-productive person against his or her will, isn't that the same thing as putting a chain around that person's neck, and reversing a 148 year trend toward true equality? 

When we embrace this new culture of responsibility, lets reject wealth redistribution and take on the responsibility of securing the blessings of a free society. Please Mr. President, make sure that you clear this up--and soon. If you don't, those who produce won't do it for very long.