Demonstrations of Improbable Physics

...or, things behaving like they have minds of their own.

The Well-Behaved Wheel



The Well-Behaved Bicycle

A Politics Quiz

I found this quiz over at The Penitent Thief and while I didn't like some of the questions, I can't argue with the results. So I'll pass it on.

You are a Social Liberal (63% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (30% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

Explanation Of Results

We wanted to get beyond the two catch-alls of American politics, the Democratic and Republican parties, and see where people actually stand. Parties can bring together people with marginally differing values and make collective action easier. But party platforms can misrepresent their constituents, and blind loyalty to a party can convince individuals to harbor inconsistent views.

The goal of this test was to exactly classify your personal politics, without the traditional labels. We avoided the edgy party issues and focused on fundamental values. Your score is a measure of what you believe in, economically and socially.

Higher permissiveness, on either axis, indicates a "live and let live" philosophy. Of course, we're almost conditioned in America, "Land of the Free", to think positively of such a philosophy. But practically speaking, permissiviness (or its opposite, regulation) can create any number of outcomes:

For example, on the economic axis, a highly permissive system, like the American system of the early 1900s, might mean things like low taxes and increased scientific innovation. It might also result, as it did back then, in unrestricted child labor and millions of poor people with black lung.

At the other end of the economic spectrum, a highly regulated system might conserve the environment, establish national health care, and eliminate poverty. But as we've learned from the Soviet system, extreme regulation can also lead to stagnation, sameness, and unhappiness.

The Green Grocer?

Like other relatively affluent, tree hugging, bike riding liberals, I've started using reusable grocery bags. Maybe you've noticed them at your supermarket, maybe you haven't. They look something like this-



It's the unspoken option when the bagger asks, "Paper or plastic?"

You smugly slide a pile of reusable bags toward him and say, "Here, use these." A lot of grocery stores will actually pay you five or ten cents per bag saved. Kind of a sweet deal. the bags only cost a buck, so if you can use a bag ten, maybe twenty times, you break even, you're not polluting, and you're not stuck with a hoard of those nasty plastic bags.

So today as I was unloading groceries out of reusable Kroger bags I picked up last week, I noticed something in the bottom of the bag. When I checked, each of the four bags was the same-



Hmmm... what's this?



It's a leaflet, printed in three colors on heavy copier paper. It brags about the contest Kroger had (the leaflet isn't even current) where shoppers were encouraged to submit designs to use on future Kroger reusable bags. The contest kind of makes sense in terms of trying to create buzz about their bags.

But think about this for a minute (apparently Kroger executives didn't): People use these bags to avoid using expendable resources. So what do they do to brag about it? They print up these leaflets to inform everyone about it. It would be just as simple, and probably less expensive (not to mention greener), to simply print the message ("Visit kroger.com/green") on the bag itself.

These bags and the leaflets inside kind of remind me of the GoGreen Hummer, although on a less noticeable scale-



Even if each of the extra leaflets is small in and of themselves, I still have to give Kroger a FAIL for them.

The whole point of going green is to save resources, prevent waste and pollution, to think in different terms. We can't go "all the way" unless we all sell our cars and grow all our own food; I realize this. But I like to think that whoever is in charge of Kroger's green campaign is an environmentalist (as opposed to a marketeer). As such, that person should be thinking of the best way to get the word out.

This isn't it. The green grocer? I think not.

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

A few posts back I mentioned a bike I had gotten for free- a 1973 Schwinn Varsity. Since it has that ugly orange Schwinn paint I've started to call it the Great Pumpkin.



I put some baskets on it last night and rode it to work today for the first time. Here are some pics I took when I stopped on the way home.



There is something crude and primal about this bike. It rubs, it squeeks, it doesn't like to stop. Riding this bike is like holding a tiger by the tail.



It's hard to believe Schwinn sold millions of these functional but clunky bikes. It's even more amazing to think that it still works well after all these years.

Getting these pictures was a chore. I used my new cell phone, but it didn't come with a USB cable to plug it into the computer. Being the McGyver that I am, I looked around and found an old Palm PDA I don't used anymore. It has Bluetooth and it has an SD card slot. So I was able to Bluetooth the pics from my phone to my Palm and save them to the SD card, then plug the SD into my computer. A pain the butt, but at least I can do it without the cable.

On "Marley & Me"

Mrs. Doohickie watched Marley & Me yesterday and summed it up thusly:

"It's like Old Yeller, but-

...they don't shoot him in a cage at the end."

That is all.

Things That Won't Die

...despite being in my garden.

I have writer's block right now, so here are some pictures from my garden.