Quote o' day

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could do for themselves.
—Abraham Lincoln


h/t Lex

The Polar Express...

More bears than we can bear?

This from "The Telegraph" in the UK

The ice caps haven’t been melting as the alarmists and the models predicted they should. The Antarctic, containing nearly 90 per cent of all the ice in the world, has actually been cooling over the past 30 years, not warming. The polar bears are not drowning – there are four times more of them now than there were 40 years ago. In recent decades, the number of hurricanes and droughts have gone markedly down, not up.

read more...

Newt jumps the Shark

Have all ya'll have been following this one up in NY-23rd District? The NRCC is backing a Margaret Sanger Award winner who supports Card Check.

Sound to you like the TEA party messages have really struck home, eh? /heh

Michelle Malkin is reporting regularly on the race and the wrestling match inside the Republican Party.

I think Newt jumped the shark with his vocal stand with the NRCC and the RINO candidate on this issue.

Quite a show being put on by a Conservative Party candidate (and some fun fireworks to watch as Sarah Palin and others have sided with the 3rd party Hoffman). It would seem to me, this is a strategic battle for the soul of the Republican and conservative movement.

I've given to Hoffman's campaign. Been plenty of talk about conservatives taking on professional party RINO's.

We been talking about this type of guy emerging from the community to run for office. There's been plenty of talking. Sometimes, too much talking.

Well, Keep talking. But, now is time for action. So take action while you talk the issue up. If you're so inclined, send $5, $10 or $20 towards Mr. Hoffman's campaign. LINK

Maybe the RNCC and Mr. Steele will feel your poke in their eye.

Hoffman's NY column: Link

Self Evident?

Are these truths still self-evident?

1. Liberty
2. Private property
3. Consent of the governed
4. Equality
5. Natural rights
6. Religious freedom
7. Rule of law
8. Constitutionalism

Even to this generation of government schooled people?

This list came nicely packaged in Cal Thomas's colume today at Townhall,

Matthew Spalding of The Heritage Foundation offers one component of that strategy in his new book, "We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future." Spalding believes, "America is unique in that universal principles of liberty are the foundation of its particular system of government and its political culture."

Part of Cal's prescription? Going Galt on public schools -- a mass exodus. hmmm...
read more...

We're facing that decision ourselves as our youngest approaches the end of junior high school. We are considering where to send her for freshman year of high school. She'd been in an excellent charter school that's a blast from the past. The school teaches history the way I learned it; with it a healthy view of American Exceptionalism.

The Charter School is in it's second year of a new high school program. We'd thought that was a fait accompli for daughter #3 since it was first announced. However, as it's developed, it's faced a lot of opposition from the Establishment and the ramp up in facilities and programs has been slower than expected. They still are making do in cramped quarters at the lower campus and hitting snags with contracting for a dedicated HS building.

Add to that daughter #3's growing interest in water polo and involvement with the team/coach/new friends at our default public high school. It's a really good public school -- as public schools go.

So, a choice between schools will have to be made -- a choice we'd thought was long since settled.

World view or water polo?

Make Mine Freedom

1948

Speaking precisely -- or accurately

A discussion about "group size" among gun nuts leads to this bit of muttering...

Accuracy as a term used by gunnies is really "precision." This is a bread and butter part of my work a day world. It's remarkable how hard it is for folks to grok. Even among degreed engineers only a few are consistently able to synthesize and apply it to their situation.

Put less precisely than the dictionary definitions but more in the vernacular that seems to "stick" with the folks I deal with:

How tight the group = how precise the (weapon) system.
How far the group deviates from the bullseye = how accurate the (weapon) system.


Lessons from quality improvement trenches:

The key to improvement is reduction of variation. Is there a life lesson lurking in there?

Along the way what all QE's should be able to articulate but not 1 in 100 Certified Quality Engineers I've interviewed can actually tell ya:

1. Make sure your measurement system has at least 10:1 better resolution than the less significant digit you're measuring.

2. Make sure you measurement system can adequately discriminate. i.e. Gauge's variation should no worse than 1/10 of your system variation (99 times out of 100 Gage R&R is a waste of time and you're better of doing an Isoplot for this).

3. Always work to reduce range of variation (R) first. Then work to shift the average (X bar) to the target (nominal).

4. Identify and reduce the largest source of variation. Working on reducing lesser sources of variation will just drive you nuts.

If you can think in mathematical terms maybe it'll help to consider that variation accumulates as the sqrt of the sum of the squares of individual variation.

e.g. Given, you have 3 factors with variations of 3,4 and 5.
Then total of each is squared and summed and sqrt is taken for final result(variation = 9 + 16 + 25 = 50sqrt).

You see that? The largest source of variation "5", has the same total effect on variation as the 3 and 4 combined(!).

There. You're smarter than 99 out of 100 QE's I've interview and probably 9 out of 10 Six Sigma blackbelts.

So is there a life lesson in there?

pfftt. Who knows. Probably.

At a minimum that understanding and a persistent curiousity is enough to make a decent living. /heh

Lost Saturday (or "Never pay retail")

Well, not a total loss, but, spent more time running around stimulating the economy than I did actually getting things done. Takes time to do the extra running around in order to get a couple better deals. Never pay retail!

First though we spent some time, my honey and I, shoveling backfill behind a new retaining wall. 15' of wall down, 40' to go. A tractor with a frontloader would be nice but would lack the aerobic benefits. /heh

Finishing that bit of wall and planter, and cleaning up that bit of drive is a major milestone. That will open up the parking for 2 RV's and accompanying waste dumps (you can see one riser cover in the foreground in photo below). Those lines were a big project last winter. LINK

We had some Saturday fun back then too. LINK
Yeah baby, we'll be able to move the trailer down from our main parking (no more door dings and parking jams with guests) and get it on hookups for hosting overnight guests.

After lunch we finally managed to get out together for a drive out to the booneys to check on a deal I spotted on Craigslist for a couple used patio tables. We've got a lot of patio now since pouring concrete last spring but not much to put out for sitting a spell. Well this was one goose chase that paid off nicely. Got there, liked what we saw, told the lady we were interested in both sets and before I could make an opening counter offer she knocked 20% off. I woulda paid full price but hey...

That'll do pig. That'll do.

Now to muster some young backs to help get 'em home. 2 sets of table and benches. ~1350 lbs each. unnggghh...


Finally we hooked up the utility trailer for a run to my toy store (aka Home Depot). There we picked up some plants to fill in more of the empty beds around the pool: 3 Phoenix roebelenii (aka pygmy date palms), a fruit bearing Passion Fruit vine and a Trachycarpus fortunei (aka Windmill Palm) with an nice cluster of pups at the base.
I'm cheap so the 3 gallon pots will have to do. Lord willing we'll be here a good long while and enjoy watching them mature.

Speaking of new patio, the new roses in the patio planters are a riot of color the past couple weeks. Dunno if it's the weather cooling, the plants getting established, result of recent feeding or a combination of all that. Either way they're are rockin'!

Here's some photos from sunset. The lighting is a bit extreme...

Perfume Delight


Perfume Delight, "Ready for my close up Mr. De Mille."


And finally, "Chrysler Imperial." The richness of the red is something to behold -- like crushed velvet. That and the powerful sweet smell just knock my socks off.

Now off to the theatre for evening of youngest daughter dancing in the ensemble as a pirate wench in Peter Pan.