Hawk Bait 4

     Greetings, All -- We are having a grand time at our house as we carefully step out of the paths of several very skilled and clever people who are renovating our bedroom.  While this goes on, we are camped out in somewhat smaller quarters down the hallway.  It is all expected to come together by close of business three days from now.  So far, knock on wood, schedules have been met and we are very pleased with the work.

     To a serious matter, we turn again to the work of Michael Yon whom we mentioned in a recent post.  We stated, erroneously, that Michael is a former SEAL, but he was an Army Special Operations Soldier and became a distinguished embedded war correspondent.  Some time ago, Michael was on a night misson with an element of the 4/4 Cav (4th Battalion/4th Cavalry Regiment).  A Solidier, Specialist Chazray Clark, although grievously wounded by an IED, was conscious when airlifted to hospital, but he soon died.  Michael and others question the length of time taken to dispatch the MEDEVAC helicopter that evacuated Specialist Clark.

     Michael's report on this event has created a firestorm of communications from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Congress and, most recently, helicopter pilots questioning Army procedures.  The U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps as well as the UK arm their helicopters and omit the Red Cross since it is only a target to the Taliban.  A new post by Michael, "That Others May Live," is found at: http://www.michaelyon-online.com/13-military-pilots-rebuke-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff.htm.  We urge that you read it and take action.

     Have you ever wondered where U.S. Greenbacks come from?  We do not mean the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, but who pulls the trigger to start the printing presses.  The recent edition of The American Scholar Magazine has the answer.  End the suspense.  See"Bring Back the Greenback."  http://theamericanscholar.org/issues/winter-2012/.

     A recent publication, The Economic Value of Opportunity Youth, captured our interest.  First, what is an "Opportunity Youth"?  Largely male minorities, this is a cohort of 6.7 million youth, aged 16-24, who may be drop outs, family care-givers, incarcerants or others.  The authors have computed that "compared to other youth," each Opportunity Youth imposes "an immediate taxpayer burden of $13,900 per year included in an immediate social burden of $37,400 per year."

     The authors, Levin, Belfield and Rosen, from Columbia University and City University of New York, computed the total cost of this cohort to be an eye-opening lifetime tax burden of $1.56 trillion and social burden of $4.75 trillion.  This study was supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for the Corporation for National and Community Service and the White House Council for Community Solutions.  Download the study from http://1.usa.gov/xwHHaO.  This appears to offer a serious opportunity, but one quite difficult to exploit.

     We have a great menu of problems, do we not?  This might be daunting to some, but to an old war horse with scars from the academic research and corporate worlds, problems equal challenges, challenges equal opportunity, and opportunity means money.  Let's get with the program and stop the "all is lost" whining!

     Best wishes, Billy Hawkfinder

    
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Hawk Bait 3

     Greetings, All -- We have had a bit of what the professionals hereabouts call Wintry Mix.  The footing is treacherous, a problem readily solved by staying indoors.  This is the first such annointment since our bizarre Halloween snowfall, so we had it coming.

     We greatly admire Michael Yon, former SEAL, recently an embed with troops in the war zones.  He is a renowned war photographer and author with several magnificent books to his credit.  A good entry point to his work is http://www.michaelyon-online.com/michael-s-dispatches/.  His most recent piece, "Time to Leave Afghanistan," has drawn numerous comments including one from us.  Michael depends on financial contributions by his readers.

     Things are a mess in South Asia, as Michael knows only too well, and it is painful to have our brave Soldiers in it.  Clearly, everyone in the neighborhood is focused on it.  The pinpoint of their concern is the questionable security of Pakistan's horde of nuclear weapons.  Should they fall into intemperate hands, the results could be horrible.  Friendly and unfriendly nations alike understand that.  It seems to us that now is the time to get those folks, all of them, to sit down in their enlightened self interest and work out solutions:  Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asian Republics, India, Russia and China.  Difficult?  Yes.  Impossible?  Absolutely not.  We believe that our latter-day Count Metternich, Secretary Clinton can pull it off.

     Several interesting articles on food safety have appeared in a recent issue of Explore, the University of Florida research magazine. http://www.research.ufl.edu/explore/  "Seafood Sleuths" is an eye-opening, if not mouth-watering, expose' of the practice of substituting less desirable species for the ones we are paying to eat.  A read might help avoid paying the $25 per pound tariff for grouper and getting $2 per pound Asian catfish.

     On topic, "Foodborne Focus" tells about the "riskiest combinations of foods and disease-causing microorganisms."  We became conscious of this problem during the recent scare involving cantaloupe and Listeria.   Author Joseph Kays goes beyond that well-known threat to others that may surprise.  A word of advice is that you should not read this article just before a dinner date.  It could dampen the overall joy of the event.

     This week, we had a glorious experience as Marin Alsop, pianist Olga Kern and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra combined their talents in an elegant rendering of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto.  Of course, you have heard it, whether you recognize the title or not.  It was bookended by Ravel's Bolero and Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra, the magnificent theme of the motion picture 2001:  A Space Odessey.  It was an incomparable musical experience.

     Best wishes, Billy Hawkfinder

What's Your Dream for America?

     Greetings, All -- Martin Luther King Day inevitably brings to our minds the indefinable magnificence of Dr. King's "I have a dream. . ." oration at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28th, 1963.  A typescript is available on The King Center site.  (http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/i-have-dream-1)

     The thought that came to my mind was to juxtapose the King thesis with the Declaration of Independence.  It was enjoyable to go to National Archives web site and call up the image of the "Dunlap Broadside," the first printed copy of the newly-signed Declaration.  It was distributed throughout the United States of America aborning.  (http://research.archives.gov/description/301682)

     The thundering assertion "that all men are created equal" leaves nothing to the imagination, does it?  Nor, we believe, can it in any way be improved by or embellished by the mind and hand of mankind.

     Freedom passes through the doorways of Ministries and into the minds of Rulers most grudgingly, even less than grudgingly.  Final surrender may come in the presence of deep fear that those whom they seem to govern will withdraw their consent.  It may come only in revolt against human principalities and powers.  (http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/book.php?book=Ephesians&chapter=11&verse=12)

     Dr. King's thesis, by now well known to all, follows directly from the words adopted at their birth by the Thirteen United States.  It goes beyond the sacred precincts of political freedom and knocks on the door of Economic Equality.  This MLK Day 2012, it is our dream that the little children of Dr. King's vision who, more and more, play together and learn together, will together share the best of America's nutrition, health services, education and quality of family life.  Such benefits may partly be given, partly facilitated, partly earned.  We must not rest as a nation until, by tried and true means, all American youth, all of them, realize their full potential.  That is our dream this Day of Remembrance and Action.

     Best wishes, Billy Hawkfinder

Hawk Bait 2

     Greetings, All -- Here it is Friday the Thirteenth again, but we are in luck because our chain has been unlocked and we are back in business.

     It all started with, "Honey, I think we should redo the bedroom and the closets."  That has translated into several days of brutal work emptying drawers into boxes, assembling clothes racks and unloading closets onto them and more moves than a bee in a garden.  The contractor is coming in on Monday.  We will have several weeks of upset, but are sure that, in the end, it will all be worth it, or so I have been informed.

     This morning, the world financial news is not great.  We understand that the debt of several European nations has been "downgraded" by the ratings agencies.  By the way, these are the same raters who led everyone to believe that all was well just before the 2007-2008 financial debacle.  In addition, today the euro is falling like a stone against the dollar as is just about everything else.  What does this mean?  Is someone crying "Wolf" or is there more to it than that?  Beats us, but we are optimistic on American recovery, no matter what.

     Everyone likes to talk about the weather, we included.  This twelve-month past has been something out of a statistics textbook around here.  Recently, the river has had ice, then no ice while the air temperature has ranged between Winter and Spring.  Looking back, we had a bigtime blizzard a year ago and we are having a balmy January -- so far.  We have had the torrential rains of Irene and an absolute drought for several weeks before it hit our neck of the woods.  To top it off, we had an earthquake.  Fracking?  No one knows.

     The cost of energy is a troublesome issue.  It appears to us that the U.S. is on the verge of a major transition from the products of imported petroleum -- gasoline and fuel oil -- to domestically produced natural gas.  For decades, many electric power plants have been equipped to burn coal or natural gas, choosing the cheaper.  Now, the cadence is picking up out there in the real world.  Truck manufacturers are now expanding their development work to the use of natural gas fuel in hybrid trucks.  More to the point, natural gas producers are working toward making their less expensive fuel available throughout the nation.  This appears to us to be nothing short of a revolution in the making that will help our nation enormously.

     There is a lot going on in business, technology, diplomacy and economics these days.  A time of turmoil such as this creates entirely new industries and new ways of thinking.  The airline industry came of age during the Great Depression and its aftermath.  In times past, the eras of steam and the industrial revolution, railroads, the steel industry and many others emerged from dark times.  So, keep the faith.  America deserves it and so do you.

     Best wishes, Billy Hawkfinder

South Florida 1931: Wash Day

     Greetings, All -- As the nursery rhyme goes:  "This is the way we wash our clothes. . .so early Monday morning," so went our lives as the Great Depression gained momentum.  Fortunately, our dad's work was secure.  The household routine continued.  The Mockingbirds kept on singing in our yard.

     Hattie, our no-nonsense African-American housekeeper went to the backyard to start doing the laundry while Mother collected the dirty clothes and bed linens.  My little brother and I helped Hattie by carrying 18-inch quarter-splits of fat yellow pine from the wood pile to the fire pits.  A fire to heat water was necessary because our "solar system" did not have adequate capacity for laundry.

     Two dug pits side by side were each partly ringed by fire-blackened coral rocks.  We put crinkled-up newspaper into the pits and covered it with kindling wood.  Then came the sought-after ritual of striking the match and lighting the fire.  When it was burning briskly, we laid pine logs on it, then placed two fire-blackened galvanized steel laundry tubs on the pits.  An opening in the front of each ring allowed the fire to be fed after tubs were in place.

     We quickly added water to the tubs.   Each tub had a capacity of about 15 gallons.  We never completely filled them, of course, because laundry would be added.  Hattie measured the right amount of soap flakes out of a cardboard box into one of them. We did not know how to do that.

     Hattie and Mother selected the right things to wash, white first, of course.  The laundry within the soapy washing tub was agitated manually using a stout wooden hoe handle.  Laundry was lifted up out of the bubbling hot water and dropped back the right number of times.  We never knew how many to do.

     After the "wash cycle," the same tool was used to lift and transfer too-hot-to-handle laundry into the adjacent clean water rinse tub.  The same agitation was applied to ensure that the clean clothes were well rinsed.  When we behaved, we were allowed to manipulate the hoe handle and to feed the fire.

     The next step was to lift rinsed items with the hoe handle and, while they were still very hot, drape them over a galvanized wire clothes line.  One end of each of three wires was attached to the grapefruit tree and the other to a vertical post fitted with a crossbar and well set into the ground.  The laundry was spread on the wires and secured by wooden clothes pins fitted with wire springs.

     The Florida sun made quick work of drying.  We helped take the dry laundry it into the house to be ironed the next day.  The tubs were emptied into the backyard and stacked in the garage until next week.  In later years we sent the flat work to the laundry.  Of course, there came a time after World War II when magical appliances such as clothes washers, mangles and dryers eased the tasks of the housekeepers of America and the world.  But, when we were little, hat was Monday.

     Best wishes, Billy Hawkfinder

The New Energetics: Is Shale Gas of Age?

     Greetings, All -- It is very pleasant to watch the robust growth of our corps of followers.  It is very satisfactory assuming that it enters into its geometric growth phase before long.  Whether or not that ever happens, we are confident that our followers are excellent in all respects and are closely matched by our visitors.


     The amount of scientific, engineering, construction, production and financial activity in the field of interest that we call "The New Energetics" is growing at a staggering rate.  Over the holidays, we read an article appearing in Physics Today. David Kramer's piece on shale gas extraction highlights issues facing the industry.  [http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v64/i7/p23_s1?bypassSSO=1] The immense potential of shale gas raises the ante in terms of cash, national security and employment growth arising from its major risk factors.  The penetration of shale gas potential in the world of economics, finance and politics is highlighted in Dr. Benny Prosser's "Shale Gas Revolution Turns the Tables on Oil Powers." [http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/43701]


     David Kramer states that the U.S. Department of Energy estimates shale and other deposits contain gas to satisfy domestic demand for 110 years!  By now, everyone has seen the video portraying kitchen tap water flaming when ignited, presumably a result of a shale fracking operation in the area.  Kramer quotes a gas industry official denying responsibility.  Major problems arising from the disposal of huge volumes of contaminated fluids are vexing industry and residents alike.  Because the petroleum industry largely departed Pennsylvania decades ago, there are few "disposal wells" into which such waste materials can be injected.  Several companies are now constructing major pipelines to bring fresh water to the shale fields and remove waste water to suitable disposal facilities.


      Injecting waste water deep into the earth sounds like a good idea absent earthquakes.  Earthquakes?  Yes, indeed.   We recall seeing an article some thirty or forty years ago in which heavy rainy seasons in Central America were correlated with seismic activity.  Perhaps we are confirming something here.  Arkansas has experienced quakes that are attributed by some to water injection.  This is now being studied.   Some authorities have suggested that the recent Virginia quake that twisted our house into a pretzel, but without damage, arose from injection into West Virginia fields.  The latest event was in Ohio. [http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/fossil-fuels/ohio-natural-gas-activity-halted-after-40-earthquake/?utm_source=techalert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=010512]   We await with interest the results of geological and seismological studies of the events.


     Some folks mourning the death of innovation in America seem to be a tad premature.  America is now giving the world a new lease on Freedom -- Freedom from threats to cut energy lifelines or to beggar the buyer community.  The Persians are waving their missiles and naval vessels about the Straits of Hormuz and the Russians are picking the pockets of the Poles, Germans and others with confiscatory natural gas pricing policy.  U.S. natural gas is priced at one third the European price!  Furthermore, we do not threaten customers with frostbite, a hammer now held over the Ukraine.


     Best wishes, Billy Hawkfinder

    

Seven Keys to the Good Life

     On New Year’s Day, Hawkfinder goofed off.  As projected, we enjoyed a lucky mess of black-eye peas and partook of egg nogg.  Despite our complaints, we watched five football scraps brought to us by advertisers in their wisdom.  It was a bit of a surprise and delight that the Florida Gators survived their encounter with the Ohio State Buckeyes.  In company with many others, however, we are in shock to see former Gator football coach, Urban Meyer, segue from the Orange and Blue to join the Scarlet and Gray.  An OSU academic department offered us an assistant professorship decades ago, so Columbus can’t be all bad.

    My wife and I have spent nearly 65 years together, 50 years next September in the same house.  We have come to some conclusions as to what’s important and what’s not, but before spreading these thoughts at length, some caveats.  No family, neither mine, nor yours, nor anyone’s in the real world succeeds at all times in perfecting these keys.  They do not include overarching philosophical and cultural backdrops such as religion, dietary laws, political persuasion, functional challenges and a host of other differences welcomed by America.  Listed in circular order, none is less important than another, and all are subject to revision.

The Seven Keys to the Good Life

·       Loving, understanding and inclusive family interrelationships.

·       A job or jobs that provide satisfaction and adequate income.

·       An evening meal at the family table with meaningful conversation.

·       Family appreciation of learning, music, the arts and other cultures.

·       Friends and relatives who can and do enrich the immediate family circle.

·       Home, appliances and furnishings set in an acceptable environment.

·       Engaging in sound physical, mental and emotional health practices.

     Every family is free to choose, but often the bounds of ability, money and just plain luck tie us down.  You and we know that, so we do the very best we can to live the good life and, more to the point, to teach our children to live that which is positive and to avoid the temptations posed by those ways of life that are negative or even downright evil.

     Warmest wishes, Billy Hawkfinder

Happy New Year? Let Us Hope!

     Greetings, All -- Here we all are, in 2012.  Last year was a trip, wasn't it?  Can we imagine that this year will be better?  Worse?  Predictions are probably best left to ancient sages such as Nostradamus, but we can look at a few facts and make a few suppositions even though a year from now, there will be egg on Hawkfinder's face.

     The foremost question in most minds is probably the trends in the U.S. Economy which, of course, shares strong dependence on the state of the rest of the world.  One of the most watched indicators of our stock markets is the Standard and Poor's 500 stock index (S&P 500) that reduces the performance of most of the values to a single number.  Well, Folks, that number did not vary one iota between the opening and closing of 2011.  Encouraging?  It did not go down, so that is better than the alternative.  Perhaps it is a somewhat hopeful sign, but I certainly do not know how to read it.

     We are all acutely aware of the sluggish reluctance of unemployment to fall, yet there has been some improvement during past months.  Other measures of U.S. economic activity have shown modest gains.  The future may depend markedly on which politically-supported idea prevails:  reduced spending through budget cuts or increased spending on infrastructure and other items aimed at reducing unemployment at the cost of temporarily increasing deficits.  In the worst case, nothing at all will be done until after the November elections.  Meanwhile, the solution of the enigma of Europe's future posture in all of this is yet to be revealed.

     My personal concern runs beyond the Economy to issues of geopolitical friction and actual combat.  There is a rising tide of quite bellicose comment regarding the perceived threat of a nuclear armed Iran.  This troubles me because, contrary to most opinion, I believe Iran to be the key to quiet in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  Should Iran, Pakistan and the United States work through the turmoil of today's headlines and come to some means of tolerating one another, that would be a giant step toward peaceful resolutions in the Middle East and South Asia.  Considering present attitudes, that hope may be smashed on the anvil of reality.

     Many other sore spots vex the globe, relations with China, North Korea (DPRK) and even with close allies on matters such as protection of the environment come to mind.  These will be considered by Hawkfinder as the world turns.  I join with you in hoping for the best.  I am confident that our very capable civil and military capacities will be ready to deal with any contingency that we face.  May they be few and tractable.

     Best wishes, Billy Hawkfinder