Sue's Paintings

My kitchen counter typically looks like this these days. Sue has really taken an interest in painting. She has quite a talent for it and I really enjoy her results. This picture is what her workbench looks like. The brushes and paints are complemented by a paper worksurface that might have any color in the rainbow.

Texas Medical Center - Houston Man First in World to be Successfully Implanted with Pulseless, Artificial Heart

Texas Medical Center - Houston Man First in World to be Successfully Implanted with Pulseless, Artificial Heart

This article is the must read source on the new pulseless artificial heart. It gives names, dates and devices used in the implantation of a centrifugal pump type artificial heart in a terminal patient that lived a month with the device before succumbing to other organs failing from the disease.

Researchers Create the First Pulseless Artificial Heart

Researchers Create the First Pulseless Artificial Heart This is a completely new idea to me. Others have reported on a centrifugal pump approach that was used in the past but the impeller on this machine is supposed to be an Archimedes screw that does not produce the cavitation the older pumps did.

3rd-grader denied playground witnessing (OneNewsNow.com)

3rd-grader denied playground witnessing (OneNewsNow.com)

This is a very tough problem for me. Should a student be allowed to proselytize their religious faith on public school grounds during school hours and common school activities. My test for this is whether it would be considered fair to have Muslims or Jehovah's Witnesses or even Wiccens do the same thing. I ask for my Chpristian friends help in understanding this by using the following example. If a Wiccan were teaching natural religion or what some feel is Satanism on the school grounds, would they find it acceptable? If they do, then we are ready to allow religious proselytizing on public grounds.

It is a question of fairness. It is a question of doing unto others as you would have them do to you. it is a question of whether the United States Constitution guarantees an individual the right to speak of their religion in public. I believe it's the same as preaching in the public square. It is constitutional and must be allowed. I support this young girl's right to speak of her religion where I would not support the Gideons passing out Bibles in the classroom where no one could leave.

We are a nation of many faiths. we must consider the rights of our citizens.

NATO equals free ride for European defense

"The Obama administration's reluctant involvement in the Libya operation
recalls the Biblical adage," The other 27 nations of nato hey only 25 percent of the defense bill 4 that organization. this is not sensible for the united states. some say, if we don't do it who will. The answer is let someone else have the chance. If it's that important they will pick up the bill. in the meantime, power federal government is raidng social security, and telling us it's broke in order to pay for such junkets.

Europe has the same problem with refugee's that we do with Mexico. The idea that they cannot defend their own borders is ridiculous.

Swype and voice input will work well

Swype is a keyboard entry system that lets you trace your fingers over the keyboard and enter text that way. It does capitals and other keyboard shifts very well.


I think Swype will work very well with voice import.It seems to have the ability to quickly react to changes. This is a very quick method of data entry. It requires the writer to think and act quickly. It handles capitals and punctuation and is used on the Android machines.

The interaction of the writer and the machine will be intense, but it's possible that the interaction of the machine and writer will be quicker than keyboard entry. The intensity of the experience should be quite profound. I believe that it would lead to very very quick work.

The whole rhythm of the way you speak and write is changed.You start to speak and think in hunks of words.

Twitpic - Share photos and videos on Twitter Uncle John Engels spoke at the Vassar Township monthly meeting. He reminded residents of local contributions to the war effort during the Civil War.

Twitpic - Share photos and videos on Twitter Uncle John Engels spoke at the Vassar Township monthly meeting. He reminded residents of local contributions to the war effort during the Civil War.

A busy day with music

Are we busy today. Brothers in song are singing 1 gig and practicing twice. We are practicing our group numbers at 11 o'clock at dave arnoldS. then we have a performance at american house north following that we have a practice at kathy watson's in clio. All in all very busy day

AddThis Social Bookmarking Sharing Button Widget

AddThis Social Bookmarking Sharing Button Widget: "AddThis is a free way to boost traffic back to your site by making it easier for visitors to share your content"

It was a beautiful but cold day for a walk on the railtrail today, but I'm glad I made the effort. This is the Cass River back up toward the bridge on M-15. It is one of my favorite spots. I caught my one and only pike so far right at the end of the grassy finger sticking out into the river. That was quite an adventure.

My new phone, the droid x, is working well and getting better coverage than I had with the Blackberry. I had trouble making calls from some parts of my house with the Blackberry. Of course, my office was a big offender on that. Now, that seems to have gone away. We'll see.

I run my internet browsing on wifi with the new phone. No more dead spots and the speed is lightning fast compared to a 3G connection on the Blackberry. This will make the phone a real competitor with the computer for internet access.

The picture above is from the droid. It's an 8 MP shot. I loved the old camera at 3.2, but after seeing what happens when you blow a shot like that up, I really didn't want to keep on creating memories and documentation in that format.

It's been a good day. I cooked supper for a change. All went well.

My Father and the Reising Gun

Dad was a Marine on Guadalcanal. It was a transforming event in his life and one filled with many stories. Some of them related to instantaneous death. One of these small stories was about a friend who was walking down the beach talking with two other Marines.

A Japanese sniper was in a plam tree looking for such a target. The sniper killed the man farthest from Dad's friend who was carrying a Reising gun. The sniper swung to the next man in line while the Marine hit the butt of the Reising gun; threw the gun into position and fired. The sniper was dead before he could swing to the remaining man.

The Reising gun had a bad reputation. Troops thought that the magazine you see extending below the gun could be used as a handle. This caused the gun to jam; not a good trait in war.

As you have heard, this gun was more than enough on at least one occasion.

My New Granddaughter

A new person is coming into my life. I wonder what she will bring into our lives. This crazy, little smile that brings a smile in return from me will bring joy to many. She is an undiscovered treasure.

Gene and Becky's Wedding

Picasa is great for going over those pictures you might not see quite enough of. This one shows just how fast six years passes. We had a great time during the wedding at the Richville Church and later at the reception at the Bridgeport Country Club.. All this took place in 2005.

Sue on the Tee

Becky's Brady has a new WII Health and Fitness. It is a wonderful thing. I have even tried it but Sue has been the best in my family on keeping up with the younger set. Brady seems to be the best at winning, of course,

Sue is standing on a balence board that isn't shown in this picture. It works well however and is key to the game. First, you stand on it to have it figure your weight. *(a fact which it never reveals to my knowledge). Then, your movements interact with the game on the screen. If you think this isn't more of a workout than most adults take part in, do try one. Not too long however, you'll be sore the next day.

Tennis, anyone?

I cut 100's of acres of hay with my grandfather's mower that was exactly like this one
It woulc cut about one acre an hour when pulled in third gear on a John Deere B. Every 3 rounds I had to grease the alamite fittings on the pitman. and oil guides on the blade. Later I changed that to every 20 minutes which was much faster as the field got smaller and the rounds got shorter I was not really using the oil to the fullest extent with the old method.
This machine would have run forever but occassionally the gear box oil would get low. Then the case would get to hot to touch. That was always a bad day.

The wooden tongue is missing from this machine. These tongues were broke about every third year when you hit a post of something. I was making a tongue out of an ash tree when I hit my leg with the hand ax when I was about 13. That was not fun.

3-D TV about to become Common

ESPN 3-D, which started last June and was only on the air for live sporting events, will be on the air full time starting on Feb. 14. Along with a few live games each week, the network will rebroadcast archived games. “This, for us, is very much an image of just what happened with H.D.,” he said of the gradual roll-out.

At C.E.S., Mr. Burns will be meeting with set manufacturers, distributors and others to, as he put it, “make sure the entire food chain works in harmony.”

Separately this week, Discovery, Sony and IMAX will give a name, 3NET, to the 24-hour 3-D channel that they are expected to start later this winter.

It appears that we are about to make a change in our viewing habits.  3-d will be one and only one of these changes.  Beginning Feb. 14,  it will have 24 hour a day programming on ESPN.  

Of course, the race is on.  While many of us have not been watching, Blu-ray players and new tv sets come with wireless and wired connections to the internet.  They are one more device to hang on that home network you have originating in the router you need for the internet. 

Boxee is out there now to be downloaded to your computer and let you get used to the idea of streaming video to a device, in this case your computer.  You can stream it to that new blu-ray player or tv too.  

Lots of changes coming in the next year.