Author: MuckAbout

Retired Engineer and Scientist (electronic, optics, mechanical) lives in a pleasant retirement community in Central Florida. He is interested in almost everything and comments on most of it. A pragmatic libertarian at heart he welcomes comments on all that he writes.

RIP MUCK

Below was Muck’s last Muck’s Minute post on May 31, 2018. You could tell his heart was broken. When his wife of 62 years died, you knew his will to keep fighting his cancer was waning. He hadn’t commented since his last post. I tried emailing him, with no response. His grandson Jake commented this morning that his grandfather had passed. From his dozens of posts and hundreds of comments over the years, it was clear Mike had lived a fascinating and eventful life, full of adventure and self sufficiency.

He embodied what everyone on TBP admires in a man. He loved his wife and his kids and sacrificed his own retirement to help them. He was crotchety and grumpy, like most of the old timers on TBP. I thank him for all his contributions and wisdom bestowed on this website and its readers. He wasn’t big on religion, but I hope he was happily surprised when arriving at the pearly gates. Mike Endres lived a life that we should all emulate. 

All 56 of his articles are archived on the right side of the page for those who want to enjoy the wisdom of our great friend.

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Mucks Minute #55

The Raping of Thee and I by the Medical System

When you need a prescription for a maintenance medication, what do you do?

In times past, one calls the physicians’ office, provide the information to the Nurses Assistant or receptionist who looks up your record, cuts the prescription for the Physician’s signature and either electronically passes it on to your pharmacy or drug plan provider.  In some cases, you have to drop by the Doctor’s office but most often the prescription is electronically transmitted to the pharmacy for you to pick up in a day or so.  For controlled substances (like opioids)  you’ll have to drop by the Physician’s office and pick up the script to personally deliver it to the  pharmacist.

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Muck’s Minute #54 The Future Part IX

If industrialized super-countries (U.S.A. tops the list right now) slowly bleeds off excess wealth too much too soon, through a fiscal and economic collapse, there will be no one on the face of the Earth that will retain the ability to put us on the road to the stars.

This is my greatest fear.

I fear that normal human nature, greed, short life span (with matching short attention span) and ignorance will simply keep things on the same old road until there is not sufficient wealth available over and above the cost of just food, water and the necessities of staying alive to allow us to even try.

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Muck’s Minute  #53 The Future of Mankind Part XIII

ADMIN NOTE: Sadly, I received an email from Muck two days ago with the following message:

“Just a note to let you that I lost the love of my life yesterday.”

Muck and his sweetheart had been together for over 50 years. I can’t imagine the pain he must be experiencing this week. I’m not sure if he wanted this to be public, but I thought his TBP family might be a comfort during this difficult time.

Begin Part XIII

It will soon be moot, for in a short while (another 50 years or less) there will be not be a sufficient number of family nucleus around to work to maintain that standard of living and the actual 50+% cut in standard of living that we, in the richest country in the world, have suffered will continue to spiral downward until it is obvious to all that we can no longer maintain the basis of our own prosperity. Will we end up with two moms and a dad so three people can work to support one household? There are some plus and minus points to that idea as other cultures have discovered long ago!

One last dagger that is already pointed at the heart of our own economy is debt. As Robert Heinlein put it, TAANSTAFL or “Their ain’t no free lunch”.

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Muck’s Minute #52  The Future of Mankind Part VII

Genetic research is just like anything else the human race has come up with.

Prostitution for example. Far better to acknowledge its existence and its necessity in the scheme of things and allow it to do business openly with as little hindrance as possible. Regulate it only as much as is required to protect the participating public and do that only based on scientifically peer reviewed evaluations of actual (not perceived) dangers. (I know – fat political chance of that ever happening).

As a short aside, I once labored atop a mountain top near Ely, Nevada at a NASA Tracking Station. Nevada enjoys the legal, supervised and regulated operation of whore houses. In my three years of living in Ely (which had three houses of prostitution at the time), there was only one legal case of a sexual nature brought before the people’s court. It happened that a cab driver picked up a lovely young lady as a fare and during the ride, exposed himself to her in an obscene manner. The young lady, outraged by such crass behavior, turned in the cabbie who was subsequently arrested and fined appropriately. The young lady was employed by the Green Lantern as a prostitute and obviously preferred to leave her work behind when she was off shift (so to speak).

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Muck’s Minute #51 The Future of Mankind Part VI

 Part VI

There is no way to ever stuff a genie back into the bottle. Whatever tools humans discover and fabricate, they use. Whatever weapons humans design and are capable of building will be used; be it nuclear, biological, genetic, chemical or anything else..

As an aside, I am all for genetic redesign of humans myself. Imagine a human being modified to live comfortable beneath the oceans. What a wonderful thing to be able to populate and explore that 80% of Earth now out of our reach.

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Muck’s Minute #50 Future of Mankind Part VI

The Future Part VI

Yet there is no way to ever stuff a genie back into the bottle. Whatever tools humans discover and fabricate, they use. Whatever weapons humans design and are capable of building will be used; be it nuclear, biological, genetic, chemical or anything else..

As an aside, I am all for genetic redesign of humans myself. Imagine a human being modified to live comfortable beneath the oceans. What a wonderful thing to be able to populate and explore that 80% of Earth now out of our reach.

How about humans that are genetically designed to thrive in zero G? They would be the ones to lead the way to the stars. When or if we reach the stars, who is to say that planets circling those suns will be compatible with our native and fragile human physiology? The odds are heavily against it. If we are able to genetically modify human beings, we can then populate those otherwise unlivable planets by literally making humans to match the environment of the world we wish to settle.

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Muck’s Minute #49 The Future of Mankind Part IV

The Future of Mankind Part IV

Start Part IV

Population expansion , regardless of how fast it explodes will never overrun the Earth because sooner than later, population density will contribute to that demise, either through resource exhaustion, pestilence or war.

In the more densely populated areas of the world, pestilence is a likely result of packing too many humans in with too many of earth’s other creatures that are required to feed us. Look at China, India and Indonesia today. The National Institutes of Health openly estimates that a disease will cross over the animal/human barrier within the next few years that will adapt to a human/human basis of transferal. Because this disease (such as avian or “swine” flue) is new to the human race, no defenses are there to combat it and a vast world-wide pandemic will follow that has the potential of killing millions and millions of humans. It is not a question of “If” this will happen, it is a question of “When”.

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Muck’s Minute #48  Future of Mankind Part III

Authors’ note:  The response to the first few parts of this series show that the vast majority of readers are myopic in their view point.  This series is about l-o-n-g  t-e-r-m consequences of currently occurring happenings.  It is not intended to be thought of as a One Turning forecast or even multiple 4TH Turnings.  A turning is between 80-100 years and I’m talking about a thousand years and specie survival.  I’ll try and rein in my long term view after this series and get back to talking about next month.

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Muck’s Minute #47: The Future of Mankind Part II

How do I know personally that global warming is alive and well? I went to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands back in 1973, and worked for five years on the Missile Range there. Twice a month (full and new moon) there would be extraordinary low tides – just perfect to walk the reefs between islands searching for shells and to observe the wondrous sea life that inhabits the reef. Twice a year, during these extra low tides, the sea would actually recede to the extent that the reef surface was bare – no water at all – and the water level would indeed be below the surface of the reef so one could stand quietly and listen to the reef “talk”, bubble, moan and gurgle as water made its way into and out of secret and normally flooded passages.

It was a magic place to live.

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Muck’s Minute #46 Future of Mankind, Part I

Future of Mankind, Part I

My thoughts on where we’ll end up – the long view.

I am of the opinion – born of what I feel is a long, productive existence and a life that has been one extended study-hall of immense satisfaction – that unless the developed countries of this world and those people who live therein rapidly modify their priorities, we humans are doomed to be yet another Earth dweller that will sooner than later vanish in a like manner of the dinosaurs, dodos and hundreds of thousands of other species that have dominated or lived upon and disappeared from the face of this Earth.

We will very likely be extinct in a much shorter time frame than the dinosaurs because of our own extraordinary technical skills and intelligence and the equally extraordinary stupidity of our beliefs and behavior.

Dinosaurs lived for many millions of years before they just happened to be in the way of a not-so-big asteroid that put 99% of them out of business along with about 90% of all life on Earth and in its seas. I feel it will not be long, by any measure of time, much less cosmically speaking, before the last poisoned or diseased band of nomadic humans fall, one at a time; until the last man, woman or child dies.

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Muck’s Minute #45

What the Hell’s Wrong with  this Country?

I realize that we stopped being a simple little Republic (as envisioned by those brave and smart people who composed the Constitution) a long time ago.  Slowly, the ruling classes that developed and grew – with minor setbacks like the Civil War,  have always worked to expand the influence of the United States of America across the world.  (I think it has something to do with wealth being crowded into ever smaller and higher percentages of the population – i.e. the 1%).

This current ongoing expansive effort was, of course, meant to provide Police Protection for those smaller, poorer countries that tend to be overrun by their neighbors now and then in  various fits of territorial ambition or religious clashes.  These “police actions” we get into (almost never Wars) were always in someone else best interest, never our own.  (Sure it was!)  At a minimum our military action was to “protect the world”  or something like that.

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Muck’s Minute #44

Trump’s Mouth 12/7/17

I am the first to admit that I’m not really sure why Donald Trump got elected President of the United States in the first place.  Just not Hellery I suppose.

Here’s a man who bought 6 deferrals (or his Daddy did) to keep him from getting his ass drafted and sent to Viet Nam or some other ugly military base.  Never a day in the military yet here he is Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces.

Now I don’t have anything against our Army, Navy or Air Force except that they are too big for what we need them for, constantly searching for things to do (which means stir things up with all the weapons at their disposal) and always needing a war somewhere (over there) on which to practice their skills, wear out their hardware and justify their existence. (and yes, I’m a Navy Vet. so get off my ass!)

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Muck’s Minute #43

Current American Politics and the Madness of Crowds

I happen to be a minor scholar or American History – nothing approaching the renowned Andrew J. Neapolitano and such ilk but never in my life of 80 years have I seen such a sorry example of political blundering within the Executive, Judicial and Congress of the United States.

First, “Citizens United” made citizens out of every corporation in the country.  I can only hold my breath until they all get to vote.  Total Idiocy.

Then we have a President who obviously appeals (tweets) to the idiot rank and file of citizenry of what used to be a proud and upstanding country.  No, it appears we have two brands of nincompoops inhabiting this country.  Pseudo Liberals along the East and West Coast and Neo-Conservatives occupying great tracks of the “fly over” portions of this great country smack in the middle of it.

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Muck’s Minute #42

Climate Change, Nasty Tropical Weather and Unbelievers

I’m sorry to have to say this but all those – from President Trump and EPA Chief Scott Pruitt need to listen hard, hear a giant sucking sound as they pull their heads out of their respective asses and give up denying that a more CO2 in the atmosphere leading to warmer climates, hence warmer ocean water, leads to bigger and better tropical storms, shifts in weather patterns and generally raises hell with human comforts and constructive efforts.

That’s not all a warmer climate does, by any means.  It makes geographical locations of fields of green with plentiful rainfall into arid grasslands and places with lots of dry rock and dirt into not so beautiful places of wet rock and mudslides.

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