Unfortunately, I was in my car last night and happen to hear several minutes
of Monkey Boy Bush delivering his State of the Onion Address.

It was just as I expected, Big Government offering solutions to all of the
problems it created in the first place.

Even more, Bush left out no group to benefit from the generous Treasury of
the People.

Some points that made no sense:

*Bush called for hydrogen powered cars. It takes more energy to create
hydrogen than it produces in cars, so there is a net energy deficit over
petroleum products. Unless electricity from Atomic Power Plants is used to
create the hydrogen.

*Why is corn, whip grass and other organic material even considered as a
fuel? Biomass is highly inefficient to use. This is obviously a subsidy to
agriculture.

*Why is he calling for more math and science majors? For the amount of work
that goes into getting a math/science/engineering degree the return is
skimpy. The starting salaries are high, but they don't go up much. Smart
kids should be studying law, maybe medicine, business administration or
multi level marketing. Good lawyers make 350K$+ , great engineers make less
than half. By encouring people to go into science/math fields, you are
creating a glut of labor and keeping salaries down. Ever hear of massive
layoffs of lawyers?

*Special tax laws have given larger corporations a distinct advantage in the
health insurance arena. They can pool the risk of the insured and offer
lower health insurance policies. Small companies can't do this. Individuals
can't do this. The market is distorted and favors people who work for large
companies. These people are not your risk takers or innovators. In fact,
large corporations are institutionalized collections of psycopaths. Now Bush
wants more breaks favor big business. This will only act to increase the
degree of psycopathic behavior. Why can't everyone be treated equally
regardless of who they work for? Where is the level playing field? Why must
those most disadvantaged be made to suffer even more at the hands of
government?

Bush went on and on about more stuff showing he is clearly lacking basic
principles, especially Conservative ones.

If Bush doesn't wind up in hell, I hope that Ronald Reagan and Barry
Goldwater will slap him silly at the pearly gates.

AMEN!!!!

Bob:
You dissapoint me. The last thing this country needs is more lawyers.
At least a degree in engineering would teach people to think rationally
about THINGS instead of how to scew people. Do you really argue for
fewer science degrees? Look at the starting salaries for physics and
engineering types, very high and they just go higher as they go into
management. Engineers build the economy while lawyers are a net drain
on the economy.

As far as hydrogen goes, the best way to generate it is to use low
intensity replaceable sources such as wind or wave power. Use it to
make CH4 from the Co2 in air and water. Methane is far better to run
fuel cells than H2 and the net carbon gain to the atmosphere is zero.
This also eliminates the need to build power lines to all these small
distributed replaceable sources. Instead, just pressurize (liquefy)
thje methane and truck it out every week or so just like they do with
oil wells.

Your emotionalism over Bush has gotten in the way of your reasoning.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Bob:
You dissapoint me. The last thing this country needs is more lawyers.
At least a degree in engineering would teach people to think rationally
about THINGS instead of how to scew people. Do you really argue for
fewer science degrees? Look at the starting salaries for physics and
engineering types, very high and they just go higher as they go into
management. Engineers build the economy while lawyers are a net drain
on the economy.

A good lawyer makes more than a great engineer. Society values lawyers more.
A lawyer can make you rich if you are a victim, or cause you to lose it all
if you are negligent. Lawyers are the feedback mechanism for poorly
engineered products. An engineer can create some new ringtones for your
phone or cause the lights to blink in some new sequence. All the popular TV
shows are about lawyers. Babes can be lawyers, but very rarely are
engineers.



As far as hydrogen goes, the best way to generate it is to use low
intensity replaceable sources such as wind or wave power.

In whose back yard? Lawyers will stop this if it ruins a view, harms a
species, endangers commerce, or is a nuisance.

Use it to
make CH4 from the Co2 in air and water.

Why not just drill a small diameter hole in the ground and pump out methane?
When you visualize wave/tidal generators think of oil platforms end to end
from horizon to horizon.

Methane is far better to run
fuel cells than H2 and the net carbon gain to the atmosphere is zero.

Only if the methane comes from the atmosphere. However, there is a net
thermal gain to the atmosphere, double that of just pumping methane out of
the ground.

This also eliminates the need to build power lines to all these small
distributed replaceable sources. Instead, just pressurize (liquefy)
thje methane and truck it out every week or so just like they do with
oil wells.

By economy of scale it is far cheaper to have centralized power production
and run power lines.


Your emotionalism over Bush has gotten in the way of your reasoning.

I believe your order is wrong. First I reasoned about Bush, then I became
emotional.

The less engineers, the better. That means more work and pay for existing
engineers.

I also encourage more people to smoke heavily. It will reduced the burden on
entitlement programs for senoirs by reducing lifespan.

Amen!

"Bob Crantz" wrote
*Why is he calling for more math and science majors?

Because virtually every school district in the US, with PhD'd administrators
who know zero about technology preparation, are ok with vocational schools
filled with special ed students and behavioral problems. The real
technicians of tomorrow will hold engineering degrees. Everyone else will
just be pumping too much grease into zirc fittings because they can't read
the spec sheets.
Ken Gray, researcher at Penn State Univ, preaches against the misuse and
abuse of vocational schools by their sending districts, and argues that the
vocational schools should be populated by the middle 50% (by academic
performance) of students. The upper (gifted) and the lower (learning
disabled) should be left in the hands of the special education teachers, and
not in the hands of the engineers and technicians who've been hired to teach
their expertise. Sending schools do tend to keep the gifted students, but
purge their classes of problematic kids, rationalizing that kids who can't
read and won't do homework can learn hands-on how to build a working robot
or program a CNC milling machine.
I contend that a competent HVAC technician is better educated than most
guidance counselors!
Amen!
Scout

"Scout" wrote in message
...
"Bob Crantz" wrote
*Why is he calling for more math and science majors?

Because virtually every school district in the US, with PhD'd
administrators who know zero about technology preparation, are ok with
vocational schools filled with special ed students and behavioral
problems. The real technicians of tomorrow will hold engineering degrees.
Everyone else will just be pumping too much grease into zirc fittings
because they can't read the spec sheets.
Ken Gray, researcher at Penn State Univ, preaches against the misuse and
abuse of vocational schools by their sending districts, and argues that
the vocational schools should be populated by the middle 50% (by academic
performance) of students. The upper (gifted) and the lower (learning
disabled) should be left in the hands of the special education teachers,
and not in the hands of the engineers and technicians who've been hired to
teach their expertise. Sending schools do tend to keep the gifted
students, but purge their classes of problematic kids, rationalizing that
kids who can't read and won't do homework can learn hands-on how to build
a working robot or program a CNC milling machine.
I contend that a competent HVAC technician is better educated than most
guidance counselors!
Amen!
Scout

Funny you mention this. I recently attended a charter school meeting where
the teachers discussed how they taught mathematics. Many parents were there.
Everyone sat around nodding to the importance of math education (like a
mantra). Yet, of the parents I knew, not one used math beyond addition and
subtraction in their jobs. I asked a few teachers to tell me what
mathematics is in one sentence. They couldn't.

Most learning comes from the home, with the school system being a
facilitator. These kids would learn mathematics better if they saw the
importance of it applied in life. Where will they see that?

Mathematics skills, to be kept must be practiced regularly.

Then, if one works hard at acquiring and maintaining the skills, they are
usually branded as an "overachiever".

First one is pushed to accomplish something difficult, then when it is done
they are earmarked with some dysfunction and pushed into the corner.

When I tell kids on how to become successful, I tell the to look for
loopholes and how to beat the system. Travel the road less travelled, think
out of the box. I even go as far to say that crime may pay and point out
many successful white collar and organizational criminals. Then I point out
that lawyers do all this and more legally!

Become a lawyer - people will fear and respect you!

Become a mathematician - people will laugh!

Amen!

Bob Crantz, preparing youth today to run the world tomorrow!

200 years from now, nobody will remember the lawyers. The
mathematicians will be remembered as will the scientists and engineers.
If you care about society, you would push for fewer lawyers who are an
economic drain and for more scientists and engineers who cause economic
growth.
I hire and fire lawyers and think they are nothing more than hired
guns, Few of them are capable of any new thoughts. I am MS Physics,
MSEE, multiple patents and small business owner so I think I know what
I am talking about.

Furthermore, I have a brother who is a lawyer and a sister who is a
lawyer. Both of them are stressed to the max and have no freedom at
all. I have far more freedom than them and can go sailing whenever I
please. Become a lawyer and you are just a well-off slave. Become an
engineer and you can start a hi tek company and do your own thing. In
my life I am torn between the three things I love, my work (which is
really play), sailing, and family. If you become a lawyer, you have no
choice, all you can do is work till you have a heart attack. My
lawyer friends bring their kids to my lab to show them that they dont
have to become lawyers but can become self supporting and do cool stuff
that is fun.

As I was typing, I heard POP, POP which I recognized as high voltage
sparks and went into the other room where my technician was working on
an electron microscope. We spent a few minutes figuring where a cable
had broken down and decided to make a teflon bushing to go around it,
fun, fun. At the same time, I am waiting for a sputter system to pump
down so I can make an entirely new type of x-ray optic. I am excited
every morning when I come to work. Can lawyers say that?

Part of the problem is the way math and science is taught as if they
were obscure theoretical subjects with little application to real life
and this is because most teachers do not understand the subjects. This
is even the case in college where the profs are great at theory but
have no understanding of how it all applies in real life. I have a
turn-of-the-century (1912) college physics text written by Millikan
(yes, that Millikan, you know, the electron charge measurement) and
it's tone is entirely different from the texts I learned from. My
texts were very strong on abstract theory and short on explaining the
real world. Millikans text is a great read explaining in detail how
steam engines work and the detailed thermodynamics behind them. He
explains EM waves and even explains how the spark-gap radio
transmitters of the time worked in great detail.
Today, Math and Physics are taught as if they are entirely theory
neglecting everyday real world problems. How many people have ever
gone around looking at their home appliances looking at the power
rating and figuring out how much it costs to run each one. This
excercise teaches the relation between power and energy and some
practical economics. How many kids have ever figured out how many
calories they burn by running up some stairs? Why doesnt this compare
correctly to the caloric content of food (one of the calorie units is
1000x the other is why).
Last year, I took my 15 yr old son on a long sailing trip during the
school year and had him plotting position, figuring out how leeway
would change our DR position, and doing coastal navigation. These real
world examples give a "feel" for trig relationships that you cannot get
just from books.
A person who know science, math and engineering can read a
psuedo-techie article in the paper and realize when the writer is full
of crap.

wrote in message
ups.com...
As I was typing, I heard POP, POP which I recognized as high voltage
sparks and went into the other room where my technician was working on
an electron microscope. We spent a few minutes figuring where a cable
had broken down and decided to make a teflon bushing to go around it,
fun, fun. At the same time, I am waiting for a sputter system to pump
down so I can make an entirely new type of x-ray optic. I am excited
every morning when I come to work. Can lawyers say that?


I may be one of the few people reading this NG that knows what a sputter
system is.
I know what you're saying, having made an nerd "interest" into a bill paying
business and enjoying it all the way. Designed and built many, many optical
coating systems.
..
Dealt with many lawyers over the years and found that they basically
produced legalized versions of documents I wrote.

Good luck with your optics/coating business. Just don't sniff too much
thorium fluoride.

RCE