BeachWeb - December 2010
Today is Friday, the 31st of
December, 2010 and here is 'just a bit' of the late-month report...
We helped-out at the "Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta (2010) in
Miami from late the afternoon of the 26th through the 30th... - just a
"Few" (iPhone) pictures...
(something like 660 sailors, something
like 500 boats, something like darned near NO WIND - but - well - we'll
let the pictures tell the stor(ies))
The Opti-Trolley-Farm... - representing some of the "Optimist Dinghies" on the waters of Biscayne Bay attempting to race...
Just a 'bit' of 'nothing' (meaning NO WIND - that we attempted, all week, to avoid!
And
"Mr. Bumper" - a cat we met late on the afternoon of the 26th when we
went for a walk around Coconut Grove before our meeting(s)...
AND
- the 'final' 'Piece de Resistance' - of the regatta (late on Thursday
afternoon, the 30th) the hosting-club (and I'm guessing the sponsors)
put-on an 'All You Can Eat (yes I PIGGED-OUT (does the sound "Oink
Oink" mean anything?) Ice Cream Bonanza... - Vanilla Ice Cream with all
the toppings you can imagine (well at least all the ones they could
come up with (crumbled Oreos, hot chocolate syrup, hot fudge, sprinkles
of various types, etc. etc. etc. etc. - Ms. May said she was too cold
from the air-conditioning in the judges room, so I ate her share (as
well as my own - I might have gained 5 pounds right there!!!!
Some "old-ish" news here -
1.) Mr. Bill's 2-years-old TriceQ ( http://www.icetrikes.co.uk ) with his new " 700 x 23 c tire (French Designation) - the new ' ETRTO
' designation is: 23-622 BIG reart wheel/tire / rear-frame... -
VERY FAST - still 'twiddling' though to get the recumbent seat correct,
the chain-length correct and the shfiter-indexing- correct - however,
now have a total of 'about' 100 miles on it - so we're getting there -
it will take MORE TWIDDLING - over the coming weeks... PLUS have a
(VERY OLD) tire off of my Trek 5200 diamond-frame, and I'm fairly
certain this tire will 'blow' fairly soon. I am, though, carrying
spare TIRES and TUBES of the appropriate size (and a pump!)
and
- it did not have a 'mud-guard' to keep water, dirt, etc. off my back
and off my 'bags of things' - so I attempted to build one out of two
parts / pieces - it is VERY LIGHT WEIGHT...
2.)
the weekend of 11-12 December will be very very busy for us... -
Ms. May & Mr. Bill will help to load-wood into a 'wood-fired-kiln'
for some pottery, AND Mr. Bill will be helping out supporting a sailing
regatta here in Stuart...
3.) The week between Christmas and New
Year's will find us (again) in Miami, helping out at the Orange Bowl
Youth Sailing Festival...
4.) Mr. Bill got a new (used) Fluke
electronic 'gadget' for (mostly) use in his work repairing and
maintaining beach / web / inlet cameras and weather stations...
That work continues and is amazing for what it teaches me about
Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. Each of these cameras
has a small computer attached and they all run Microsoft's Windows XP
Operating System, and so I continue to learn a LOT about this - the
gang that I work for in Miami is amazing in their ability to teach me
new things and be patient with my learning...
(New Fluke gadget
screen-dumps (screen-dump1 & screen-dump2 & gadget's software-graph ( graph1 ) (all are ...bmp files, the software only runs on Windows...)
5.)
and - of course - all the other things that a normal 'December' would
find us doing (Like right NOW we're attempting to stay warm when the
temperature last night was below 50 F...
A couple of "Thought Provoking Questions":
=================================
God & the Genome Project:
Here's a 'got me thinking' question for you:
IF (big BIG IF) - there were some way to retrieve a 'valid' DNA sample from Jesus
(and/or the 'philosophical leader' of any other religion)
and IF (another BIG IF) that 'leader' was 'perceived' (or 'known') to be able to heal by 'the laying on of hands'
and IF (yet one more BIG IF) the DNA could be 'replicated'
could,
then, another human being be 'cloned' or somehow 'developed' with the
DNA of the 'healer' to - then - heal other people?
(and, note here,
though, that the 'healer' can heal OTHERs, not him/her/itself!)
AND
- if the answers to all these IFs were really YES - then could / would
some company (or government (or whatever)) be able, then, to basically
make redundant all these drugs and drug-companies that we have today
and what would that all do to all the 'world's economies'?
(this 'thought provoking question' was the subject (and a lot more things are in the book))
"The Miracle Strain" by: Michael Cordy (1997) (ISBN: 0688155081)
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AND _ now - if that's not enough thought provoking for you - try this one:
A computing question:
Let's
'assume' that 90% of those of us in 'developed' societies, who
use e-mail, know what hackers and spammers and phishers are.
WHAT IF _ we could (somehow (carrot and/or stick)) convince all those
'nefarious types' to use their skills for GOOD (for BETTERing the
people, computers, societies) instead of for spamming, phishing,
trojans, viruses, etc. etc. etc. etc. - what would the
(computering / e-mailing) world 'look like'?
AND: HOW would we
get those nefarious types to do that? - (what type(s) of carrots and
sticks would we use as a society to inflict this change?
This
'Thought Provoking Question" came (in SMALL PART) from the above
mentioned book, but the book did NOT dwell on the "Thought Provoking
Question" - I developed it on my own, while reading the book...
For November, 2010, you can click on this link: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/BeachWeb2010/Nov10/Nov10.html
For October, 2010 you can click on this link: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/BeachWeb2010/Oct10/Oct10.html
AND/OR for the "Cycle North Carolina - 2010 cycling trip" you can click on this link: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/BeachWeb2010/CNC10/CNC10.html
AND - that's about it for now.... - more later....
updated: 21:51 p.m. on Friday, 31 December, 2010; by: Mr._Bill on the Apple Macintosh
'G5' - revID: 1d
