Coping: Merry Christmas, Robert Nelson

So here we are, with only a couple of weeks to go until Christmas.   Elaine and I are wondering about setting our “big projects” for 2016.

Part of it will be determined by how Panama and his lady friend/intended do in their house-hunting.  But it seems the odds that they will be successful WILL work out one of these times.

I may have mentioned that Panama is the only person I have ever met – over the course of fifty-plus years to have three solid home purchase offers blow-up.  All were for a variety of reasons, but that’s the thing about “Luck.”

With most people, when luck runs with you, you’ll do things like I did on the latest road trip – and actually come out ahead several hundred dollars in a casino.  Then it runs against you.  It might be a flat tire, getting in the slowest possible line to check-out at the grocery store, or some other nit like that.  Small pluses, small minuses.

Panama?  Well, his luck tends to run to extremes.  Because in the most latest example, his luck was very, very very bad in real estate, but it was very, very good when came to his heart attack.  Of course he won’t call it that – something about a “silent heart” attack.  But when his occurred, his luck was running with him:  He drove himself to the hospital with no problem.

Then he maxed out the treadmill test at Mother Francis (or whatever that big hospital up in Tyler is) and got two stents put in last week.  They sent him home the same day and he’s back to his wild-man self, pretty much, ever since.

If you think of luck, some people is good and when there is a squiggle in the odds, the deviation from “normal” is small.  Panama’s is outlandishly good or incredibly bad.  He just lives that way in Statistically Improbable Land.  Somehow, he’s adapted to it…which is amazing.

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Panama’s health issues got Elaine and me to wondering again about what we really want to do when we grow up.  Neither of us is particularly interested in acting our age, though.  If we did, there would be piles of dirt on top of both of us by now.  I figure Elaine would look good in daisies, but I’m thinking the man-man-manly thing for a male afterlife would be to turn into fertilizer for a putting green.

That way, I’d never be far from the beer and a few cuss-words to keep Eternity interesting.  And think of the stories about “The haunted 13th green…”

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When Panama (and Lady) find a homestead for themselves, we’ve basically decided that we either stay put and sell the airplane.  Or, we keep the airplane and move.

And that got us down to an interesting exercise Sunday morning of figuring out where we wanted to visit next.

As you know, I like casinos.  Mainly because if I shake hands with Bates, then ground myself really well, do the Miracle Money Technique  (free, and the website of our consulting astrologer who created it is over here), we can usually break–even..

Elaine likes casinos for the “People watching.”

The last time we went over to Shreveport, Louisiana was almost 10-years ago to have lunch with one of E’s shirt-tail relatives.

It was OK, but the place we happened to pick seemed sort of run-down.

Got a new theory about casinos:  It’s almost like when I step into an older casino, it’s like some of them have just plum run out of luck.  Got to wonder what kind of spiritual energy lives in these places….

Take the one we went to 10-years ago.  It was an old floating casino on a riverboat-like platform.  The ramp going to it was wood and I could almost feel the heaviness of the souls of gamblers-past who had walked in with dreams and left with tears, or at least closely shorn of their money.

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But which casino?  After looking at the Eldorado, the Horseshoe, and Sam’s, we happened to find the Margaritaville.

We made a tentative decision to try this last one out.  Not that we know one thing from another in Boosier/Shreveport when comes to gambling houses.  But the Margaritaville has a café which features something we’re very much appreciative of:  Interior Design that Transports you to somewhere else.

The first picture that comes up at this link should be a picture of the place where we will be hanging out.

Remember, our whole house is done in “transports you” rooms (each dripping oodles of character) so in addition to leaving Panama (and Lady) some piece and quiet at the ranch, we reckon the trip will fill us up with enough decorating ideas to keep us going well into spring.

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We also did some price shopping around the casino websites (and this is worth storing in long-term memory):  The cheapest hotel nights are Monday through Wednesday.  On Thursday prices begin to edge up.  By Friday, it’s an outright hold-up.  And come Saturday, in addition to the hold-up, the hotels throw-in a complimentary bludgeoning.

No, this is not scenes from 50-Shades of Shreveport.   Although at the prices, we can’t figure out why more hotels don’t stock their rooms with complimentary adult lubricant.  I mean, it would be more practical than yet-another nondescript hair rinse, conditioner, and straightener – which neither of us ever use.

We may be old, but we’re far from dead…and always willing to share useful marketing ideas.

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The hotel prices are all about the same (around $80 per night), and there was little variance on how a proposed three night mid-week stay would be priced.

One joint said it would be about $251, all taxes included.

Another said it would be $238.00 and change, including taxes.

Another said $218.  But they left off a 5% occupancy tax, a 4% something-or-other tax, and a 4.5% something-else tax.  By the time they were done, it came up about $247.

So the highest in town (standard room, king, non-smoking) was $83.66 and the cheapest (that Elaine would stay in, lol) was $79.33 a night.

Not much of a spread.

I won’t say which one, but look closely for “resort fees.”

As we noted on our last (sadly flu-ridden) outing, a lot of resorts are advertising a “suck ‘em in” price of (make something up) and then screwing you with a “Resort Charge” which in Boosier/Shreveport can be upwards of $45/day, if you don’t read all the fine print.  This is ON TOP of the hotel bill (and complimentary bludgeoning on weekends).

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HUGE DISCOVERY:  The biggest finding of our easy-chair travel scheming was that your eyesight may not get worse as you get older, after all.

In fact, our new working theory is that as you get older, you begin to look for more detail.

Example:  When I was young, and went out to sit by a pool somewhere, suck down a cold one, and ogle the beautiful two-legged wildlife, it was enough just to be young, with beer, and eyes open.

As I’ve aged, though, I look for details.  Besides resort fees, I look at things like “Is that from a used clothing store?  Where did that come from…Amazon?  Say, does she have varicose veins?

Elaine notices the same things, except about men.  Grecian formula, or real?

The “couples game” we play while people-watching is comparing assessments of people’s net worth as they parade around; mostly strutting their nothing.

BUT – What About Robert Nelson?

Oh…that.

Anti-gravity.  Hang on, the conversation begins to twist about here.

You see, after figuring that we wouldn’t be able to pick a travel date until Panama’s next house-buying spree was set, we knocked-off and decided to get back to our respective workspaces.

Elaine’s working on a book…I’m eyeing my room and a vacuum cleaner to see if I can piece together any application of the one to the other.  (It’s a denial meditation.) And since I was looking at BIG PROJECTS for 2016, this got me to my goal.  Beat Gravity.  Even 10% would be a huge victory.

Another novel is in mind…but following the notoriously poor sales of my first one (in spite of good reviews), I’ve decided it would be quicker and cheaper to build an anti-gravity machine, first.  Then write the book about it.

And THAT is why I mentioned Robert Nelson.

You see, several years ago (10 maybe) Robert was kind enough to send me some files from his website which were not “out there” in the public domain, just yet.

He send them on a yellow thumb drive…and I promised to send something back of value on a thumb drive to him.

I keep thinking about my monograph on static electricity and gravity (Statitronics) but it’s not ready for prime time until I build something out of the technology, other than being able to light up a small LED on dry days using the metal rooftop of the palatial UrbanSurvival/Peoplenomics solar-powered crazy-inventor’s workshop and writing pit.

My workbench would not look like this if it weren’t for Robert Nelson.

You see, anyone can work with HF radio gear and make it play.  The physics of ham radio are very well-described and the results are repeatable.  So yes, I can point and talk with the big ham radio antenna in most digital modes, single-sideband voice, and reasonable Morse code speeds any time day or night.

But what I haven’t been able to do yet is to beat gravity.

The key to doing that will come, I believe, from a different approach to looking at magnetics.  One of the key insights of James Clerk Maxwell was kicked around on our www.peoplenomics.com site back in 2012.  (The site is about economics, people, and getting on, but every so often, especially around fall, we find the sparkly bit of science that gets us really motivated to go looking for neat – undiscovered basic science – and how to go about exploring the unknown which might be as close as the home hobbyist’s electronic workbench.

Robert Nelson runs the fabulous idea repository over at www.research.com.

I will warn you in advance, however, once you have begun to sample his collection (like the James Clerk Maxwell paper here) and then go out and do some independent research into magnetics on your own, something distinctly WRONG about how we think about magnetics begins to peer out at us from the research.

While most people are familiar with how the magnetic lines of force appear (iron filings on a piece of paper, a bar magnet under it) we have become absolutely transfixed with the lesser force that may hold the key to gravity as well as magnetics.

That’s the force which pushes the lines of force away from the magnet.

Those two horizontal arrows show how the lines of force are repelled around the center of a magnet.  Yet the development of electricity has all be predicated on the notion that when you move the ends of the magnet past a copper wire, you will induce electronics to FLOW.

Current is what we call it.

This other stuff (my buddy Vince and I think it may be the B field) has not been widely studied.

So we will have a discussion about this topic on Peoplenomics Wednesday.

Because it’s the time of the year when the home inventor can often stitch together several hours in a row.

For me, there is a huge multiple B-field project in the works for this winter and it’s predicated on a line of inquiry that seems to be staring at us from several directions.  Yet, to far as I know, no one has done a systematic (Edison-like testing regimen) to look for the special effects across a wide range of interacting frequencies.

We know that magnetics can be formed into beams…and we suspect that there is something to this breakaway civilization talk.

But what we don’t know is how to get there.

And yes, now we’re back into Robert Nelson’s repository of ideas…and that is why this morning I wanted to wish him a very merry Christmas and recommend you visit the www.rexresearch.com site.

A Final Ponder

…to start your day off right.

Looking around my office, there is a wall area with a bunch of interesting mementos on it.

They aren’t there to brag, but to remind me of particularly “good thinking” in my life; good enough that someone took the time to notice and recognize it.

It’s an assortment: A degree here, a patent there, and so forth, including that little patch in its own frame above.

I share that – and the problem of gravity (along with a link to Nelson’s site) because we each have a unique way of becoming and achieving our own flavor of excellence.

Science, at the moment, seems to have a problem.  We have gone absolutely computationally  crazy.

We seem to have forgotten that all the theory in the world doesn’t mean much, unless we can actually build something – and it must have value.

Not that mathematics isn’t powerful; no I am not saying THAT.

But, what I AM SAYING is this:

The earliest and biggest breakthroughs that led us up the staircase of civilization…was there math involved at the outset?

No.

While it may seem crazy to want to do a particular series of interacting alternative current magnetics as a wide spectrum sweep, I would argue that it is not so nuts at all.  Has anyone looked before – systematically?  What were they instrumenting for?  Heat, light, gravity?

And the prove the point, I would offer you all the calculators in the world and challenge you to come up with a major fundamental breakthrough in science.

In other words, did the math boys calculate fire into existence?  No?  As far as we know it was just some some stupid sonofabitch who was interested in lightning or rubbing sticks…

And you have to instrument for what you are looking for.  You would have to burn down a forest in order to get useful data about the noise made by fire.  In this case, instrumentation with a teapot is better, although for low-level detection, it’s hard to beat a hand.

Note to the kids:  There is no app for this stuff…

All any of the basic breakthroughs took was a brain, some curiosity, and enough time off to try out some “wild ideas.”  It’s like going fishing, but without the boat, motor, and license.

It speaks volumes about who we are when we make daily choices:  Like what’s more important?  Having a freshly washed car or a keen breakthrough insight?  If you’re doing the one, odds are low you’re doing t’other.

One makes you a next-gen human.  The other makes you $14 bucks worth of machine work.

You can take all week to work this one out.  But do say Merry Christmas to Robert.

Write when you break-even,

George   george@ure.net