Everyone is Talking About It

Many times the media will tell a story, and the lead into that story, "everyone is talking about it" The story that they were talking about was the person who got trapped in an elevator over the weekend. They are not speaking for me. I wasn't talking about it. Maybe everyone in the news studio was talking about. Who are they to say that everyone is talking about it. When the terrorist flew the planes into the twin towers, it could be true that everyone is talking about it. Isreal is bombing Gaza. Every one is talking about the earthquake in Haiti. The news said that the whole world has and eye on this and so do we. That is a reasonable statement.

Water Storage Without a tank or Reservoir

The basic unit is described as follows. A one inch water pipe is set up perpendicular using guy wires to hold it from falling over. A water pipe that comes from a water source is buried and connected the sprinkler pipe. A fine mist sprinkler is attached to the top of the sprinkler pipe. When ever the temperature is below freezing for twelve hours or more, the water is turned on. When the temperature goes above freezing the water is turned off. This would most likely happen in December and January. It would work better at an higher elevation. The purpose is to make ice, not snow. Test would be conducted to determine the optimum flow to create the most ice per day. It may be possible to create one foot of ice per day. Over the period of two months the ice could be 60 feet high. Possibly hold 100,000 gallons of water. This would be built over a rubber pond liner that would keep the water from sinking into the ground. The water from the melting ice would be channeled into pipes for irrigation purposes. Ten units built together would store 1,000,000 gallons of water. One wonders how big an ice pile would have to be to last until it begins to freeze again the following winter. One sees a lot of ice from sprinklers on the the farms in the spring and late fall. How much ice would there be in one day if it were below freezing for 24 hours?
This could be done at parks and then carved into interesting sculptures. Or create tunnels, rooms, or any other mammoth design.

Stretch Your Money

One message in the media over the past months has been how to stretch your dollar. Instead of buying partially prepared food, they buy more raw material and prepare the food from scratch. A good example is the prepared salad. They would just by a head of lettuce and a bunch of onions, and a bunch of radishes; and then prepare their own salad. The people involved in that process making prepared salads would be out of work. That same process would repeat itself in many other food products. Some have shown how you can save 30, 40, percent buying a number of different items. It doesn't seem to matter whether it is food, furniture, hobbies, or whatever. The vendors on the other hand want customers to spend their money on their products. So the dilemma is if the consumer changes their shopping behavior and looks for more ways to get more product for their money; the producer cannot provide the traditional product and either lays off employees or goes out of business.

BYU Started the season very well. They won most of their earlier games. The mid season games did not go well. Some of the games should have been a lopsided victory for the Y, but they just barely won. They lost the last two games by a large margin. They were out coached and out played on those games. Most teams improve each week. BYU did not improve each week. The teams that they played improved each week. That is how the season went.

The better team wins

BYU lost the game Saturday at the LasVegas bowl. The sports commentators talk about the three games that they lost. They lost because of the turn overs and the poor executions. I say that they lost because the teams that they played were better. There is going to be more fumbles by the quarter back when the defensive line over powers the offensive line. There are going to be more picks when the quarter back doesn't have time to throw because of the aggressive defense. There are going to be more big plays by the winning team when the losing team misses their defensive assignment.

Media Influence on our concept of the weather

Over the last few years, the media has been treating storms much differently. They use sensational adjectives. Terrible, the worst, winter blast, blasted, unheard of, bitter cold. A common two each snowstorm is treated as if it was anomaly. There are many storms going all the time in different parts of the world. After hearing this many times a day one starts believing that the weather is worse than what it was years ago.

The Marriage License

During ones life span a person may purchase or obtain licenses. Fishing License, Hunting License, numerous business licenses, contracting licenses, marriage licenses, etc. suppose you went to the county court to obtain a marriage license. As you step up to the window, the clerk asks you which license? "what kind of licenses to you have," you reply. "We have," he goes on, "Marriage age license for one year, five years. At the end of your license time, you marriage will be over. You don't have to get a divorce. You just won't be married any more. You can renew your license for another year or for five years. Or you can get a license that will last until either one of you die. We do not have the authority to issue a license that last beyond death. Sounds pretty strange doesn't it? There may be some people who look at the marriages as unnecessary or just for a short time.

There is something wrong.

Several weeks ago congress and the Senate passed economy stimulation package. The government gives billions of dollars to the banks so they can loan the money to the consumers so they can start buying cars, computers, clothes, TV‘s, etc. The people that need the money are the people who have big credit card debt and are behind in credit card payments, or lost their homes. The money given to the bank will have little effect on the economy. Clearly, this does not help people to get out of debt

Influence of the Media

How does one take a position on national events?

To have personal knowledge of a certain activity one must be a witness of that event. If one cannot be there he must talk to someone that has been there; be able to ask the right question to clarify all the situations. If It is a local issue, one can personally investigate it and become involved with the people that are there and make observations of any physical evidence that might exist. When it becomes a national or international event one has a greater difficulty in coming to an accurate position. Not being able to be there we then have to rely on newspapers, Television news, or other types of media. We then can make a decision based on what the is reported in the news. The Iraq war is a prime example. The news papers and other organization take opinion polls of how people like the way the war is going or dislike the way the war is going. But the only way that most people have to decide how the war is going is what they see on TV. When there were a lot of casualties there was an opinion pole almost every day. A certain number of people were asked questions. Is the president doing a good job or is the president doing a bad job?

Now the war is going better there are no more opinion polls about how the war is going.

It is the same with the presidential candidates. Opinions of the people are formed somewhat by what they read in the papers. The major TV networks will investigate some candidates more than the other trying to find out the "dirt."

The Party out of Power

The democrat are in and the republicans are out. A new president is preparing to step into the White house. It seems to me that the two party system has a few problems. The party in, wants to be successful and serve the people. If they are successful, they will win the next election. The party that is out, wants to be in, in the next election. This lends to noncooperation. So instead of getting the work done in a timely way, there is delay.

One Prayer, Two Different Answers

Things are going poorly here. My wife and my children are suffering. The roof leaks, there is a chilling wind blowing through the cracks, there is no fuel to heat the house. the food is nearly gone, I have lost my job. I'm behind in my car payments. My credit cards are maxed out. The bank is about to foreclose on my house. What I am going to do? Will you get me a job, or help me win the lottery, or strike gold, or some thing like that?

The answer from the gods in Washington: You poor man. Let us help you. We will mail you a check each month that you can use to pay your day to day living expenses. We will forgive you of any debts that you might have. We will get your house back or give you another house. If for some reason you miss a payment, we will make the payment for you. We have a way where you can get food at no or little cost. We will pay any medical or hospital expense that you might have. You have nothing to fear. We will take a little from everybody so we can help you and other people like you.

The answer from God in Heaven: I hear your prayer and I truly understand how you feel. I went through much worse things than that when I walked among men. I could easily give you a job, provide you with a house, or donate to you all of the money that you need. But you are not on this earth to have things easy. You are here to learn, to help, to see how well you can do on your own, and to see how well you deal with the problems that come to you.

There are some people because of their abilities, hard work, inspiration, or good luck have acquired much more than they need. It is from them that I require of their own free will, to help the poor and needy. It is not the job or responsibility of one person or institution to take from one and give to another.

Do It on Her Time

Do it on Her Time

I have always believed that the best way for a man to get along with his wife is, "do it on her time."

When your wife asks you to do something, you have two choices. You can do it now when everyone is happy about it, or you can do it later after a big fight. If you do in on your time, everyone will be mad. If you do it on her time everyone is happy about it. Irregardless of when you do it, you will have to do it any way.

Children should follow this same principle when their parents ask them to do something like mow the lawn, rake the leaves, do the dishes, take out the garbage, or when you ask them to clean their room, etc. Do it on their time when everyone is happy instead of on your time after a big fight.

This is some what the same way when fulfilling a responsibility. Do it now instead of waiting until the last minute to do it, where it will be done poorly, or even forgotten.