Monthly Archives: February 2015

And that’s the Truth! Pbbbbbbbbt!

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Genetically Modified apples that don’t brown are in the news this week. The Arctic Golden and Arctic Granny apples were created by Okanagan Specialty Fruits, a small company in Canada. The USDA approved them for U.S. consumers on Friday.

Moron Holding Sign“The morons say GMO foods cause famine?” an incredulous Rufus said when we saw one on ABC News holding a sign.

Global Warming, measles, and GMO apples give us a good stepping stone to consider facts and truth and moronity.

GLOBAL WARMING
Political Assertion: “Man-made Global warming is making sea level rise.”
Fact: The Isthmus of Panama “recently” formed; that allowed armadillos to migrate from South America into North America by the early Pleistocene.
Fact: The Bering land bridge intermittently connected Asia with North America as sea levels rose and fell under the effect of ice ages; at one point that allowed early humans to migrate from South America into North America.
Truth: The climate does change over time but none of those huge changes had anything to do with humans. Only a moron could believe a politician can fix it with a tax.

MEASLES
Political Assertion: “Vaccinations cause bad shit.”
Fact: The United States eliminated measles in 2000 thanks to vaccination levels over 90% of the school-age population. China and Mexico have almost no measles infections thanks to vaccination levels over 90% of the school-age population.
Fact: Measles cases in the United States are at their highest level since 2000.
Truth: Most current infections occur in unvaccinated people, most of whom declined the injections for religious, philosophical or political reasons. Only a moron could believe that the political science of climate change is so vastly right but the real science of disease prevention is so vastly wrong.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS
Political Assertion: “GMO foods cause famine.”
Fact: Genetically modified wheat doubled yields in Mexico, India, and Pakistan and have saved over a billion people from starvation.
Fact: Modern corn (maize) began with a huge leap in genetic modification about 10,000 years ago when farmers in Mexico domesticated maize by choosing seeds because they came from taller plants or tasted better or were easier to grind. This selective breeding or artificial selection led directly to the corn we enjoy today. Modern genetic tools reduce the labor force needed to produce enough food for us and reduce the need for evil pesticides.
Truth: Politicians make stuff up. Morons believe them.

TRUTHS
• The solar deniers cult simply ignore the inconvenient truths that their computer models are flawed, that Michael Mann’s flawed hockey stick graph was never real science, and even that solar activity has some small teeny-tiny relationship to temperature here.

Whether climate change is man made or not has become a religious argument with the faith-based politicians who believe with all their hearts and none of their brains using the story to make money and that magic will keep their feet dry and their crops growing. The facts paint a different story.

The climate is always changing. The wise human will prepare for the change while the moron rails against the thermometer.

• The liberal left and the conservative right have joined forces under the anti-vaxer’s tinfoil hat of political science disease prevention.

Whether vaccine is good or bad has become a religious argument with the faith-based anti-vaxers political cult who believe with all their hearts and none of their brains that magic will keep them safe. The facts paint a different story.

Vaccination can prevent the once common diseases that ravaged us — polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, rubella, mumps, tetanus, rotavirus and the flu. The wise human will protect him or herself while the moron rails against the needle.

• ABC  News also noted in the GMO story that 80% of the corn we eat is genetically modified. ABC News was dead wrong. 100% of the corn we eat is genetically modified.

Whether genetic mods are good or bad has become a religious argument with the faith-based politicians who believe with all their hearts and none of their brains trying ban all change and that magic will keep them fed. The facts paint a different story.

Foods evolve whether we do it in the field or the lab. The wise human will measure the impact of the change while the moron rails against the science.

So. Facts and truth and moronity.
The wise human observes a problem, gathers facts, has an idea, tests the idea, and draws a conclusion. The wise human tests that conclusion against any new data.
The moron hears a perfect idea on the Interwebs, finds a fact that confirms the idea, concludes it was a great idea and never ever needs changing, and then rails against the science that contradicts him or her.

And that’s the Truth!

 

Floodstock

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I never got to the 1969 Music & Art Fair everybody still talks about. I was in school in beautiful, downtown Hoboken and we were all too serious to drive a couple of hours north to stand around in a muddy field in the rain for a long weekend to listen to rock-n-roll music. Heck, we could get that for free (or for the price of a couple of beers) right across the river.

I got a sort of second chance.

The Trout River pummeled Montgomery, a small town halfway up the mountain on the eastern border of my County. Our friends and neighbors there lost houses, clothing, furniture, food, cars … The lasting image I have is the same as Marathon, Florida, after Hurricane Wilma or New Orleans after Katrina.

Fortunately, no lives were lost.

Local water supplies were destroyed, flooded septic systems polluted lawns and wells, and the residents had to dig themselves out by hand.

One of my musician friends said, “Hey, why don’t we have a concert to raise a few bucks to help out.”

This is the story of why we had no phones at the show, but I have to tip a rary to get you there:

THE MECHANICS OF A BIG CONCERT
Floodstock took about 23 days to organize, probably a record for a concert with two stages, a world class headliner in April Wine, and 17 other exceptional entertainers. We applied for and received an Act 250 permit, AOT permissions, and created a plan to shut down the airport in the event of problems. There were no problems. And it didn’t rain even a single drop.

Franklin County Field Days donated the site that had housed the Grateful Dead two years before. We had a great fence but had to build new stages.

Floodstock was a family event, so a kids’ store set up a corral with toys, activities, and volunteers to keep the kids happy. We also had a splendid hospitality area for the handicapped and for folks who needed a place to sit down and relax in the shade, thanks to the Town Manager and his merry band.

More people have asked how we got nearly 700 custom tee shirts so quickly; here’s that story.

Natalie LaRocque-Bouchard designed the Floodstock logo and e-mailed it to me for the website, for posters, and for other publicity. A Northfield shop owner offered as many shirts as we wanted for the cause. The shirts were stored in bins in his converted mill building in Northfield; all we had to do was come down, count them, and truck them home. Two peeps volunteered. They drove to Montpelier Thursday afternoon to deliver the AOT contract and to pick up the shirts. They didn’t know about counting them, so they retaliated by picking an extra extra EXTRA large florescent orange shirt for me. Unfortunate, a traffic incident delayed them as they approached home with the load. Our printer finally received the shirts late Thursday evening and printed them Friday morning. We gave away shirts to almost 400 volunteers, community groups and band members, and sold the rest on Sunday.

Frank Barnes of 8084 and I co-chaired the effort.

Most of the back stage folks signed the orange shirt while I wore it all day Sunday.

MY REMEMBERIES
The biggest concert I’ve ever presented left my brain toast, my feet mush, and I couldn’t stop smiling. In 78 hours the Field Days/Grateful Dead site went from a bare field to a dual-stage major concert site, to a bare field again. All with volunteer help. Everyone who helped out took home a host of wonderful images; in no particular order, here are some of mine.

The National Guard lashed 4 flatbed trailers together for the main stage, leveled them with blocks and jacks, then built an extension out of Field Days’ bleachers.

The Friday afternoon phone call from Grover: “We can power the sound or the lights, not both.” While we searched frantically for a 120 KVA generator (rarely available at the local home center) and tried redesigning the sound, the Swanton Village Electric team quietly found us enough juice.

A pediatrician lopped the ends of the staging with his chain saw.

We ran short of volunteers around 5 p.m., so a whole gang simply stayed over and worked a double shift.

April Wine’s Myles Goodwyn hit the first chord and the lights in the production trailer browned out. The lights danced with the beat for the rest of the show.

Tech guys slept in hammocks strung under the trailer-stage through some of the loudest sets.

Jesse Potts bragged to me that he had never sounded so good. Jesse, I was in the crowd. The tech guys for each stage had a little friendly competition going and everybody sounded great!

Rebuilding the Field Days fence Monday afternoon with Highgate Town officials and friends.

The April Wine setup on stage included a canvas enclosure to hide the drum set until their show started. I was backstage for the 8084 set, watching April Wine drummer Jerry Mercer in his private tent play beat-for-beat with 8084 drummer Scott Belisle.

ZE PHONE ZE PHONE!
Cell phones were not widespread in Vermont in 1997. There may have been a cell tower. Somewhere. We needed a phone line but NYNEX/Bell Atlantic was dragging its collective feet about installing a temporary phone line to the Field Days site (the wire was already there — all they had to do was flip a switch back in the office).

At 4:59 p.m. Friday, I was in the Town Clerk’s office, on the phone pleading with the NYNEX supervisor who had his hand on the switch.

At 5 p.m. Friday, NYNEX turns off its phone lines. Bang. Static. Dead air.

I sat down. I hung up the phone gently. And I had an epiphany.

100 years from now no one would remember we couldn’t make any calls.

THE ENDING
All the bands played for free.

Vermont received about $7.5 million in Federal aid. That takes care of roads and bridges. It didn’t help the individual homeowners and renters who lost everything.

All Floodstock ticket revenues went to the Montgomery Flood Fund.

The Bands
April Wine
8084

Blues for Breakfast
Cobalt Blue
Jesse Metcalf & Good Knight Moon
Jessie Potts
Joey the Clown
John Cassel and Friends including Will Patton
The Johnny Devil Band
Land of Yo Variety Show
Mark Twang
Mary Ellen Missett (Frannie the Clown)
The Nobby Reed Project
Nocturnal Emissions
No Prophets
Patrice & Kathi
South Bound

Yankee Pot Roast
Zephyrs

 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

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I’m bored.

Miz Gekko wrote about boredom and creativity but this is different.

I like working on/worrying on a problem or a process or simply an idea. I can wander around in the cellar in the back of my head, move the furniture around, blow the dust aside with the air compressor, and make connections or come up with something new. I used to do that all the time while standing in a grocery line or sitting on the toilet or commuting. Somewhere along the way, I lost some of that time.

My need to make some changes to the No Puffin Perspective™ has nothing to do with gaining time to commune with the guys in the cellar.

My need to make some changes has everything to do with what I write about.

I need to freshen my approach.

The Perspective™ has indeed exposed a number of the issues we face, from the general lies, to the Comcast lies, to the political lies in pseudoscience and finance.

Don’t worry, I’ll still point out when we need a new head for the CDC (and for the guy who appoints the CDC Director).

Today in Medicine
We need a new CDC Director.

Norah O’Donnell asked the yes-or-no question on CBS Face the Nation yesterday, “Do we need to mandate the MMR vaccination?”

CDC Director Tom Frieden danced around it but never said yes.

It is a tragedy that the measles vaccine had eliminated measles from the U.S. by the year 2000. Fewer than 100 cases have been reported every year since, but 644 people became infected in 27 states in 2014. 84 cases of measles were reported in January of this year alone. Most are in California where airhead parents listening to their bubble headed, celebrity, political “scientists” have opted out of vaccinations. [<==Note Editorial Commentary]

Public schools do require kids to be vaccinated but California parents can exempt their kids simply by saying they have a “personal objection” to vaccination. Of the 6,236,672 kids enrolled in 10,366 California schools, nearly 200,000 may not be vaccinated against measles and over two million have not received all seven CDC-recommended shots. Those 200,000 put thee and me at risk. Your kids, too.

CDC Director Tom Frieden danced around the question but he never said yes.

Here’s the plan.

Week 1: Random Fancies from the “you just won’t believe this” department.

Week 2: Random Storytelling from North Puffin.

Week 3: Random Truthtelling from the topical news

Week 4: Random Storytelling from South Puffin. (We don’t call it Random Access for nothin’ you know.)

Five week months mean you get a week off. Yay!

Don’t worry, I’ll stay on top of my areas of interest and expertise, from business and marketing, and engineering and real science, to heating issues, to the National Debt, teaching, and, of course, healthcare but next week I’ll tell the story of why we had no telephones at Floodstock.

If you are an editor looking for syndication, the new schedule means you can pick up a monthly spot with light explanations of the unexpected, a twice-monthly pair of tales from the northern- and southernmost points of the Puffin range, or all four. Or any other combination.

Cheers!