FYL'z Brainz

There are two movies here, one called Zeitgeist and the other Zeitgeist Addendum. They are available for free on the Internet or you can buy them on DVDs for $5. The advantage of the DVD is that it has subtitles in a bunch of languages. Apparently, the DVD also has the movie dubbed in Spanish.

If you feel something is wrong with the world/the way the world is going, I highly recommend watching at least Zeitgeist Addendum. Is it political? No, it is actually anti-political.

When I was a kid, a styptic pencil was the thing one would use to stop bleeding if you cut yourself shaving Note that I said one. I only shaved with an electric razor and gave that up 40 years ago. How does it work? Wikipedia offers a good explanation. As I remember, the one around the house when I was a kid was alum.

A few years ago someone cut themself and my wife said ground coffee could be used.

I friend of mine sent me this link to an AP article about more e-book readers. Conceptually, I like the idea that we can read books on a screen. While I sometimes like to have "paper in hand", there are many times when electronic books are the right answer for me.

The obvious answers, depending on how aware you are, is either the President or Big Corporations. But, today, it looks a bit more complicated. I will assert that while the U.S. government is there to serve corporations and friends in high places, there is now a very interesting division of power within that government.

Looking back to the Bush II administration, it was pretty obvious that the government was there to serve corporate interests.

While a legal drug, sugar abuse is a real issue. Type 2 Diabetes is one of the health problems that result from sugar addiction. But, it's big business.

If there is one thing I have learned it is the best way to fight big business is with big business. For those who did not want to or could not consume the sugar levels being marketed to people, artificial sweeteners have been produced. Unfortunately, they have been less than perfect.

Early artificial sweeteners such as saccrhin just tasted bad.

I was thinking that what's in my kitchen might be interesting. I like to cook but have a small kitchen in an off-grid house. What you find in my kitchen may surprise you.

First, a bit about my house. It is round. The kitchen is built as a long, relatively narrow but curved room. It is about 20 feet long but only between five and six feet wide. The difference in width is because the outside wall in the continuous curve of a 25-foot diameter wall but the inside wall is three straight sections.

Why do humans require so much time and help after being born (or even after conception) to become self-sufficient? This is a serious question inspired by watching one of our dogs deal with her puppies.

On the doubting side, of course, some will say that humans are more complicated, sophisticated, have greater potential and such. That's all well and good but I don't see it as an excuse for a slow start.

Baruffa's puppies are 21 days old today. While I have been around baby dogs, cats, horses and cows before, this is the first time I have really been there full-time.

I have written about this before, probably in http://www.NicaLiving.com but it needs to be said a few more times. For you usanos, you most likely associate the word recycle with a government-mandated program. Well, there is really a lot more or, well, actually, a lot less to it. It took my move to Nicaragua to understand the real meaning.

I previously talked about Carlos and Baruffa, both Samoyeds. I just got a comment from an old friend about how cute the puppies are and realized that I have known her for almost as long as I have know about Samoyeds. I worked with her in 1970. At that same time I bought a Samoyed for the daughter of a friend and co-worker.

I live off-grid. While I have an inverter to supply 120VAC, I have tried to run as many things either directly off the batteries (24 volts) or off one of the three 24 to 12 volt DC-DC converters. One such choice was a 12 volt RV-style water pump for water pressure in the house. When I initially hooked it up, it tended to cycle a lot when using water. While it wasn't a serious problem when washing your hands or doing dishes, the pressure variations in the shower were a bit irritating. The solution was to add a pressure tank.