W illiam Henry Harrison didn’t accomplish much during his time in the White House, but there’s a good reason for that: He died after just one month in office. The ninth President of the United States caught a cold after getting stuck in a rainstorm on March 24, 1841, just 20 days after his inauguration, and made the fateful decision not to change his wet clothes upon returning to the White House. He developed a “severe chill” the next day, complained of “fatigue and mental anxiety,” and underwent bloodletting before being diagnosed with pneumonia on March 29. His illness was kept from the public, which began to worry — and speculate — about the newly elected commander in chief.
Harrison’s condition worsened, and on April 3 he spoke his last words, directed at Vice President John Tyler: “Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more.” He succumbed to the illness at 12:30 in the morning on April 4, the first President to die in office, setting off a brief constitutional crisis, as presidential succession had yet to be clearly defined. Harrison’s wife Anna, who was still in Ohio, never moved into the White House. Tyler was sworn into office two days later once the confusion was resolved, earning the unfortunate nickname of “His Accidency.”
It was once enough to humiliate someone or shame them in some way to make a point, today it seems we have a need to kill. Killing was the right of Kings for those that poached a deer from his forest or stole a loaf of bread. I don’t think Charles is doing that again. We in modern society have taken our method of humiliation a step further and now take lives over the most trivial of reasons. Some places still value family honor and having your children violated in front of you or you in front of them is a very big deal, and it might be here as well if our culture put pride higher on our value list. We show pride in our sports teams, our cars, but not always in our family members or where we live. Our nation has suffered from lack of pride in who we put in our offices of power. All it takes is money, not brains, not ability, not humility, not civility, just money. Look at a good percentage of what is running the federal and state governments and very possibly local as well and you can verify that statement. Are these people proud? Yes, of the fact that they have put one over on everyone else. The founders put the electoral college in the loop to cover illiteracy and it may have worked very well for them. At that stage of the game it was wealthy land owners that had the vote and most could read and write but I suppose there were a few that could not. Now the electoral college is used along with gerrymandering to put the vote back into the hands of the wealthiest which also happens to be the smallest group. This is not what the proponents of the college would have us believe, it is all about fairness, if by fair you mean the minority get to run things. So why mention humility, because we need to become informed about how our government works so that we can start having it work for us,”We the People” not just the folks with the deep pockets and cheesy grins. Most of these elected officials go to DC with reasonable amounts of money in their personal bank accounts. The pay they get from the jobs they do are good but won’t turn them into some of the riches people in the country. That happens because they are not monitored and are allowed to accept bribes and payoffs, no pride, no honor, just greed. It does not matter which party they represent or how righteous they claim to be, temptation gets to most of them. Somehow we need to change the rules. It seems that it can be done with abortion laws, human rights laws, and many other causes so we should be able to take away the idea that corporations are people too. This in truth gives the money behind the companies power they should not have. Do away with super pacs and all that sort of crap, put the political rallies back in the park not the ball park and let everyone come.
It’s commonly known that Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt were related (the 26th and 32nd Presidents were fifth cousins), but FDR’s familial ties to American Presidents extend far beyond that one link. In fact, he’s related to a total of 11 Presidents by blood and marriage: John Adams, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, William Howard Taft, and of course, Teddy. What’s more, FDR and his wife Eleanor were related as well, and not just by marriage. The pair were fifth cousins once removed, as Eleanor’s father, Elliott Roosevelt, was the brother of Theodore Roosevelt. The trio was so deeply intertwined that on Franklin and Eleanor’s wedding day, Teddy was the one to give Eleanor away in honor of his dearly departed sibling.
Farmers aren’t the only ones with a vested interest in keeping bugs off crops. Plants themselves have a number of defenses against their entomological enemies, including, it turns out, caffeine. The chemical serves as a natural pesticide that “disturb[s] the behavior and growth of numerous insects and their larvae,” according to a New York Timesreport on the discovery of caffeine’s natural function in 1984. (Until then, researchers had been mystified about why plants produce caffeine, as useful as it is for people.) In tests, caffeine proved effective against mosquitoes, tobacco hornworms, milkweed bugs, mealworms, and other pests; some of these tiny foes became uncoordinated, while others’ appetites were suppressed. (Aside from coffee and tea, plants that naturally include caffeine are kola, cacao, guarana, and yerba mate, among others.)
For all that, caffeine has yet to come into commercial use as an insecticide. Aside from a host of logistical issues, its effectiveness is something of a double-edged sword, as it can seep into the soil of coffee farms to such an extent that it actually harms the plants themselves. As with humans consuming caffeine, moderation is key.
If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?
My problem with the notion of being someone else is that in doing so, if you honestly stepped in another’s shoes, you would also assume their issues and and troubles. Being someone else for a day would you be them or yourself in their skin? Watched to many body switch movies in the 80s and they never seemed to turn out the way the protagonist hoped, I have my own issues would want to assume someone else’s, even for a day.
As you navigate the highways and byways of your daily commute, you may have encountered an intriguing sight: black cables stretched across the road, almost like stealthy sentinels of the pavement. But what exactly are these enigmatic tubes, and what role do they play in our transportation infrastructure? The answer lies in the realm of traffic management and data collection.1
These unassuming black cables are, in fact, portable traffic counters strategically placed by transportation authorities for research purposes. Primarily used by local agencies, these tubes hold vital insights into road usage and traffic patterns. With more than 12,000 of these traffic counters scattered across the state, they provide invaluable data that fuels the planning and development of our road networks.
The technology driving these unobtrusive rubber cords is elegantly simple yet remarkably effective.2 Each time a vehicle’s tires contact the tube, a burst of air is triggered, setting off an electrical signal recorded by a counter device. This ingenious pneumatic mechanism can track the volume of vehicles passing over a road within a given timeframe. Transportation agencies can gain insights into peak traffic congestion periods by analyzing the intervals between these air bursts. When deployed in pairs, these tubes provide even richer data, enabling the determination of vehicle class, speed, and direction.
Such information is far from trivial—it forms the bedrock for informed decisions on road signage, speed limits, and allocation of transportation budgets. Based on these insights, municipalities can fine-tune their traffic management strategies, ensuring that road systems remain efficient and safe for all road users.
While the primary function of these pneumatic road tubes is traffic counting, their utility extends far beyond mere enumeration.3 These inconspicuous instruments serve as multi-dimensional data collectors, playing a pivotal role in enhancing our road infrastructure and ensuring smooth traffic flow.
The U.S. Department of Transportation sheds light on the operational intricacies of these tubes. When a vehicle’s tires traverse the rubber tube, a burst of air pressure is generated, closing an air switch that sends an electrical signal to a counter device. These tubes can be set up either as temporary or permanent installations, each serving distinct purposes. Temporary configurations, often lasting only a day, offer quick glimpses into traffic dynamics, while permanent setups provide continuous, in-depth monitoring.
Transportation agencies strategically position these black cables in areas with minimal interference, targeting straight stretches of road for optimal data collection. Through single-tube setups, agencies can gauge vehicle counts and time gaps between vehicles. When utilizing paired tubes, the system delves into the intricacies of traffic, capturing axle count, direction, and speed.
These unassuming tubes also step in when urban road management faces challenges. If residents raise concerns about speeding or shortcutting, these tubes are deployed to investigate and validate claims. The data they generate contributes to the formulation of transportation budgets and the implementation of effective solutions.
In conclusion, the next time you encounter those mysterious black cables stretching across the road, you can appreciate the intricate web of data they weave behind the scenes. These unassuming instruments serve as silent observers, capturing the heartbeat of our roads and guiding the decisions that shape our transportation landscape. As you pass over these tubes, remember that they are more than meets the eye— they are the pulse of our evolving road networks.
The Government shutdown that is looming should not be an issue that we need to deal with. The people elected to the office of representatives are supposed to be adults with knowledge of our nation, understanding of our culture, and skills to bring programs and parties together to keep the economy moving forward without problems. What we have is a bunch of children that have a few personal agendas and they want to make everything come to a standstill until they get what they want.
This has been happening with regularity over the last few years and it is getting very tiresome. We need to change how we make these decisions or change who makes them. In the mean time this type of behavior should come with punishment not reward. Issues that impact national financial matters should not have anything to do with what two consenting adults do with their lives, i.e. same sex marriage or anything like it.
We were formed as a nation with a separation of church and state and the reason for that is on display everywhere that the church has a major say in how the state operates no matter the religion. The religion or religious leader believes they have the last word and that all are to listen regardless of membership in the church.
Kennedy was a hard sell for President because he was Catholic and “You can not serve two masters and the Pope will be running the country”. It did not turn out that way but today we have representatives in congress that want to stuff their brand of bull down everyone’s throat whether you like or not. The push to make this a Christian country and all the rest of it is not a plus.
If we are so set on being of one faith why have we allowed foreign nations to come here and take over some of the biggest, richest industries we have? Oh, right that is under the table and out of sight because it is being done by the very wealthy in our country.
Let’s be honest with ourselves, the corruption that goes on is allowed because to many in high places are making a profit and they don’t care if religion is part of the program or not, because they do not intent to let it affect them. Bottom line for the folks with the books stuck in your hands, the majority of us have far more faith in our democracy than we do in your hypocrisy or religion as you like to call it so stop trying to sink the rest of us in the ship of your despair.
As for the legislators we need to get rid of the current batch of idiots and see if there is better fruit in the tree.
Elections are coming and we are supposed to declare our party choice for reasons that escape me. The party has rights, is hardly the answer as far as I’m concerned. I have rights and my right is to tell you it is none of your business as to who I vote for and you damned well know it. Election year, leap year one extra day to listen to bull shit and hope that your vote counts for something. With the way gerrymandering has been used to give one party the upper hand it does not seem that winning the popular vote means much when the rich don’t want it to. Is our system perfect, not by a long shot, but it is better than not having a voice at all. We need to find a way to take back the right of the people to have a 4th component to our government that has the power to get rid of bad apples. That component is the people and if you believe that no member of government will care about that then keep in mind that the component we are talking about very often contains the mothers of the people sitting in power and none of them want to offend their mothers. It is time to take the reins of power back and put them in the hands of people that have the best intentions for the nation at heart. We need not listen to the self indulgent overly nosey people that populate the office that are supposed to serve the people. Take, for example, filling out a survey and they ask about your race. Human is not enough they need more and if you are of Hispanic background they can get down to which side of the mountain on the south coast of wherever you came from. They don’t ask for such details if you are European, German, or French or Swiss or any of those, or African or American, do you come from New York or Arizona, no that is of no interest but from Spain, Nosey to the max, why? Have you been asked for your blood type, sperm count, positon preferences or anything like that no. Too much unnecessary information being asked for and far to much being given, time to stop. We need to get back to relevant and leave it at that
Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.
I undertook installing an in ground sprinkler system. The endeavor included cutting down a tree, removing 4,000 pounds of gravel, leveling the yard, digging a total of 50 yards of trenches, installing PVC water lines in those trenches then covering and leveling the ground again. All that was is preparation of laying sod. It was a lot of work for a house that I unfortunately had to sell.
in 1954, Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, began research on a new book of records meant to help settle pub arguments. The idea stemmed from a bird hunting expedition Beaver took in 1951, during which he and other guests debated about the fastest game bird. Unable to find an answer in any extant reference work, Beaver eventually decided to create his own record book to answer such questions. He hired researchers Norris and Ross McWhirter to work at his new company, Guinness Superlatives, which began operations on November 30, 1954. The McWhirter brothers (the twin sons of a newspaper editor) worked tirelessly to research various facts before finally putting pen to paper, and after more than three months of 90-hour workweeks, the record book was ready for publication.
The first issue of the Guinness Book of Records (now named Guinness World Records) was published on August 27, 1955. Initially, the book was intended as promotional material for the Guinness Brewery, so 1,000 copies — which were laminated to protect against potential beer spillage — were distributed to local British pubs. However, the book proved to be so popular that Beaver changed his tack and began selling it to the public. An additional 50,000 copies were printed, and by Christmas of 1955, the Guinness Book of Records achieved bestseller status in the United Kingdom. The company released the first U.S. edition in September the following year, and by 1964, the book had sold more than a million copies worldwide.
Esoteric Meandering Shouting Into the Void 
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