Safe and Dangerous Slime Recipes

All of these recipes could be safe given exacting adherence to the recipes.  However whenever kids are involved the potential for unexpected variability is always higher.  This list is not exhausted and the recipes were not tested by the poster.

Safer (Borax Free) Slime Recipes:
https://science.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-slime-without-borax-5-easy-recipes-for-gooey-homemade-ooze-0147194/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ileysde0y6M

Less Safe - Avoid slime recipes that includes Borax (Boric Acid):
https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/glue-borax-gak/
www.pbs.org/parents/crafts-for-kids/gak-attack/
https://www.homesciencetools.com/learning-center/how-to-make-slime/
https://sciencebob.com/make_slime_with_borax/
https://www.pinterest.com/explore/slime-recipe-borax/

Stone Age > Dark Age > Age of Enlightenment > Industrial Age > Nuclear Age > Computer Age > Information Age > Dark Age II

We age: Stone Age > Dark Age > Age of Enlightenment > Industrial Age > Nuclear Age > Computer Age > Information Age > Dark Age II

Dark Age II is marked with a sudden shift away from facts, truth and ideals and toward, self interest at anyone else's expense, a blind belief in lies and liars and an abandonment of ethics.

I will find and post links to those unpopular facts and truths that reveal the utter BS that spews out of the White House and Congress during these dark times.

Please also see my blog BHLSO.blogspot.com

Mr. President,
I voted for you, twice.  I don't regret it for an instant.  Considering the choice available it was the only 'intelligent' choice.  You have been a good administrator of the Executive Branch but you have some inexplicable blind spots:

With Sequestration, you allowed the Federal Government to grant wholesale layoffs of senior workers in government contracting companies, of which many of my associates and I were part of.  We know it as 'Secastration'.

You helped Wall Street out of the economic mess they created but have done virtually nothing substantial to help the victims of Wall Streets illegal activities and Congress' unbelievable stupidity in lifting the hard fought protections set after the Depression. Your efforts to prosecute the perpetrators who blew up the US economy has be as weak as your effort to help the victims.  How hard would it have been to waive the taxes on Short Sales of homes for 6 yrs from 2006 to 2012?

And right now you are seemingly ignoring Kuwait's efforts to fund ISIL.  You need to go on record announcing that the US is well aware of Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar efforts to fund ISIL (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finances_of_ISIL).  You need to demand that they stop.

Your getting the Affordable Care Act enacted was a major accomplishment despite the Medical Industry's and Republican's efforts to gouge out as much profit for themselves as possible.  No doubt like Social Security and Welfare it will take decades to clean up the profiteering and, other inserted opportunistic crap, out of the legislation that conservatives and commercial interests put in.

I'm retiring at age 62 in spite having plenty to contribute in my profession due to your 'Secastration' policy which may have stopped the Republicans but also put the kabosh on 55+ employees.  Don't try to use the highly inaccurate employment statistics.  I know that many of the 55+ unemployed are now claiming to be self-employed or have retired early so the statistics look rosy, just like a pair of 'rose colored' glasses.

Please set this last year coming up of your administration putting your focus on the righting the areas I covered above.  I've lost about $275,000 net when after a great review and raise I was laid off.  I was replaced by 'Matrix Org. processes' where my work was shifted to other divisions.  A 30 year younger worker earning half my pay, incapable of doing what I did, was added to the IT lab staff.  All of this supported by a Government Org. who couldn't lay their own 55+ workers off so they forced their contractors to lay their 55+ workers off, with 'sequestration' cuts to task orders.

I will vote for Hillary Clinton next, not because I think she will do me any favors but she will manage foreign affairs better than any available Republican, and she will make many fixes to the Affordable Care Act since she's an expert on that subject having almost gotten the original legislation through during her husbands period in office.

It never ceases to amaze me the way the GOP revises history.  Their presidents ran up the largest debts in history and blame Dems as 'tax and spend'.  They claim to be able to bomb our enemies into the last century but couldn't come up with a valid reason to go to war with Iran under GW Bush.  The Gov. of Fla. wants to run the country but spent not one dime to prevent over half of the State from succumbing to Global Warming inundation within the next 60 months (http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/florida.shtml).

Conveyances
Hand cart, chariot, brougham, cabriolet,
chaise, coupe, dogcart, fourgon, hackney, surrey,
sulky, roadster, phaeton, landau, log canoe, skiff,
birch bark canoe, rowing shell, sail boat, power
boat, hydrofoil, unicycle, bicycle, motorcycle, steam car,
electric car, hybrid car, amphicar,
Lotus submarine car, Aerocar, Terrafugia
Flying Car, hovercraft, blimp, dirigible,
biplane, monoplane, ultralight, Mercury,
Gemini, Apollo, Shuttlecraft, SpaceX Dra-
gon spacecraft.  Where we you going? 
What do we hope to find?  We're hurtling
down the road in our fourwheeled boxes.  We
scream across the sky tucked into seats like human
pretzels, eating, little bags of yes, salted pretzels! 
In turbulance we watch our drinks, float
off our trays, and fall into our laps!  But
video teleconferencing simply lacks the
personal panache of thoseTSA
pat downs at the airport.  So,                              get into your conveyance and
speed on your way.  Feel the freedom              of being in a far off, exotic land. 
Eat their exotic, local cusine, served in           your own hometown by a cousin
of the same chef serving you now.  Tra-          vel you say, it's the people, the
culture, and the view!  But the home-                                  land you left has
all types of people, every                                                      kind of  culture,
every habitat, a melting                                                          pot of every exo-
tic place you have dream-                                                         ed of, served on a
sesame seed bun with fries                                                           and a shake, at the 
drive-in,  with your date, in                                                            your conveyance.

E. Eric Matus, 2011

Poe@Tree

sittin' on the couch, lemon bars are bakin',
watchin' old movies, on the Family Channel.
spouse's
              heavy
                        breathing
                                       tellin' me
                                                     it's late.
the lemon bars are coolin', so I write a bit,
and wait.
six months
                 unemployment
                                        is tellin' me
                                                         it's late.
exposed dust and boxes, empty shelves,
empty space exposes our short sale state.
a boat
          becomes
                        our home
                                       as we face
                                                        our fate.
midnight clock is tickin', I sit up late to watch,
Congressionl dickerin', jobs and jobless wait.
friends
           hopefully
                         wish us
                                     Happy
                                                New
                                                        Year!
avoiding thoughts of self doubt, I sit up late,
denying doubts, I read online job postings.
each
        HR wishlists
                          belittles
                                      decades of
                                                        hard work.
in the dark I face the possibilities, career's end,
career change, limitations, personal fiscal cliffs.
spouse's
             heavy
                       breathing says,
                                    "Cease dark thoughts,
                                                      eat a lemon bar!"
                                                 

Prometheus - Alien Movie Prologue

I admit it I'm a die hard SciFi fan.  I enjoyed Prometheus immensely while simultaneously wanting to throw tomatoes at the screen.  Unfortunately writers of Science Fiction don't have to have science backgrounds.  They aren't required to have backgrounds in the fields of study they write about either.  Prometheus, as do many SciFi movies, demonstrates a common flaw in many good scifi stories, the lack of commonly used science protocols.  I know, the story wouldn't have a plot if everyone was doing the correct thing all of the time, but in Prometheus there isn't even a pretense to following any kind of common sense safety protocols, or decontamination protocols, or honesty that stems from concern for fellow crew and spouse.

First the plot is in 2093 which at the slime mold pace of the space program over the last 30 years (From 1950 to 1982 mankind went from sputnik to orbiting the earth to landing on the moon and to flying in the reusable Shuttle craft to an orbiting space station.  Since then progress in manned flight has essentially been in cryogenic sleep.  How then do we make the leap to interstellar space flight traveling at speeds that mean, well two years of suspended animation traveling at nearly the speed of light you would travel two light years.  Hey the Alpha Centauri is 4.2 light years away so at the minimum they would've had to been traveling twice the speed of light or faster.

Okay, the story already is full of holes on the science of space flight, but then they arrive in a planet that has obviously been inhabited life forms and they pile willy-nilly into cool looking off-road vehicles and dash off to the nearest feature.  There they proceed to climb out and on-foot begin to "explore."  One has to assume all of the real scientific work surveying, recording, cataloging, and ensuring safety and contamination protocols are followed must be left up to automation because the humans show no acknowledgement of any of those things.

Then of course the cliche', oh look the air's breatheable lets yank off our helmets and do a sniff test, scene ensues.  No one, anywhere, t any time would be so stupid as to do this without first breaking out a plethora of air testing apparatus and exposing a zoo of test subjects first.  A mistake would be deadly from any number of chemical and biological causes, which would not necessarily have immediate effects.  Imagine the potential for viruses, fungi spores, bacterial spores, trace gases with delayed side effects, etc.

Then there's the scene of, let me touch it, 3 year old mentality that apparently anyone who dons a space suite is imbued with, since so many scifi movies use that.  Now I get that to move the plot and create the dramatic sequence someone has do something that increases risk to a dangerous degree, but SEALs go on mission full of safety protocols and still risk death.  Why can't scifi scientist go on missions and follow a set of common sense safety protocols and still face death?  You want to have the character touch something then just say, "Okay all the automated safety protocols are completed, go ahead and touch it, its safe."  Then let the hidden creature bite the hand off.

I love the special effects, the technology (somewhat dated in certain aspects), and the creatures and aliens.  I loved the concept of meeting humans ancestor, The Engineers, the vehicles and such.  I love the protagonist and her "surprisingly well developed survival skills."  I loved how she continued to pursue her quest in the end and the first sight of the fully matured alien popping out of the last surviving Engineer's body.  All of that was very cool.  The mix of ancient, retro and modern was also fun.  But guys you can write your plots without making the characters look like scientific blithering idiots which insults the intelligence of the audience.  Give it a go mate, try it just once.  If you keep the pacing and all the other aspects of a good story the accuracy of following good science and protocols will not kill the story.

Alternative Marine Power

If Sailboats can average 22 knots around the planet the viability of sail power for military and commercial application seems closer to reality. Imagine a fleet of sail powered vessels spanning the globe to hunt for submarines, collect weather and water data and follow whale herds for research. The following article discusses the kind of sailing performance needed to perform military and commercial functions.

Orange II Smashes RTW World Record

(Wednesday, March 16, 2005) Bruno Peyron and his 13-man crew have crossed the finish line at Ushant setting a new world speed record of 50 days, 16 hours, 20 minutes and 4 seconds, achieving an average speed of 22.2 knots. Not only have they broken Olivier de Kersauson's Jules Verne record by 12 days but have totally annihilated the outright record set by Steve Fossett and team aboard Cheyenne last year by seven days. - Sue Pelling/Yachting World