DrBacchus' Journal

I got tagged by Ken. Hmm. Let's see. Five things? Who started this, anyways?

Consider two sets. A is the set of all things that you, my loyal reader, don't already know about me. B is the set of things that I am comfortable telling to the entire population of the Internet. A ∩ B is vanishingly small. But I'll give it a shot.

1. My first job, when I graduated with a Masters degree in Mathematics, in abstract algebra, was as grounds keeper for a large church in Lexington
2. I was, I believe, the youngest instructor ever hired by Asbury College - I started teaching College Algebra at Asbury when I was 22.
3. I used to play violin for the Tallahassee Junior Chamber Orchestra.
4. I won the Kenyan national secondary school poetry recitation contest in 1987, reciting "To An Old Lady, Asleep At A Poetry Reading", by James Kirkup. My phony English accent was convincing enough that the judge was quite distraught to find out afterwards that I was American.
5. In 1983, I won the North Florida, South Georgia, Road Racing Grand Prix, which means that I won more first places in 5K road races than anyone else in the 13-and-under age group.

Passing the baton, I think I'll tag Ruth, Paul, Moose, Chris, and Tony.

So there.

The airplane/treadmill problem seems to assume that the wheels provide thrust for a plane that is trying to take off. They don't. The thrust is provided by the jets (or propellers) against the air, not against the runway. Spinning the wheels of an airplane doesn't result in air flow over the wings. A plane becomes airborne due to the Bernoulli effect of airflow over the wings, not because of spinning wheels, or any other motion with respect to the ground. The arguments that I've seen offered about this so-called problem seem to completely lack understanding of how aerodynamic lift actually works.

Because the jets exert thrust against the air, and not against the runway, the fact that the runway is a treadmill - assuming that could actually work - would be to hold the plane stationary in the air, and there would be no resulting airflow over the wings, and thus no resulting lift. The blowing of the jets (or propellers) would have all the resulting upwards lift of a box fan.

Actually, the more I think about it, I'm not at all sure what assumptions folks are making. But they don't involve any understanding of lift. If the wings don't move relative to the air (or vice versa) there will be no lift.

Sarah and I did some origami. That was lots of fun. But what I find even more fascinating is the bizarre random assortment of stuff in the background of these photos. These photos feel like my mind of late. Presumably something important in the foreground, but lots of strange and inexplicable things jockeying for attention just outside of focus.

My online banking account tells me:

For savings account transfers:
Federal Regulation D limits the number of preauthorized, automatic, telephone, electronic (including ACH), online and other transfers and withdrawals not made in person or at an ATM to six (6) per month for all savings accounts. Excessive activity will result in a Reg D violation fee for each applicable transfer/withdrawal over the monthly limit; please refer to your current pricing schedule for personal accounts. There is no limit to the number of transfers you can make from your checking account.

So ... the government says that if I make more than 6 deposits to my savings account in a month, I've committed a crime. A crime for which they can fine me.

I have to assume that this made sense to someone. I hope that it's about more than just artificially creating an additional source of revenue, but I honestly can't see any reason why it would be a crime for me to transfer money to my savings account. I suspect that there are poorly defined reasons behind this, protected by the all powerful, but mostly illusory words "terrorism" and "national security".

Whatever the reason, it makes me angry.

I used to read Alec Saunders religiously. It seems that his site moved to a new place quite some time ago, and I missed it. Interesting stuff there. Hi, Alec!