Hurray!!

Personal Post Alert: This blog post contains elements of uncertain interest to any but a select few. Unlike standard Meow posts, which try to bring something of interest to a broad range of tastes and enthusiasms, this post is strictly a giant sigh of personal relief. Reader boredom may follow. If you experience such boredom, please contact your local search engine and find something else to read. This is for your own protection. Any proceeding beyond this point is strictly the responsibility of the reader, and the fact that this post is available on a publicly accessible website in no way obligates the blog ownership to ensure that any certain level of amusement be associated with said post.

Having said all that... Celebrate with us! The garage just passed inspection! The garage just passed inspection! Of course, the guy from the City of Portland had to give me one last spasm of anxiety, because that's what the City Charter demands, but now that it's over I can look at all the bureaucracy-induced trauma with a sort of mild amusement--or at least I will be able to after the Prozac kicks in.

How, you might ask, did the inspector manage to punch my panic buttons? Well, he showed up at the door this morning, clipboard in hand, to announce that there was a problem--HE HAD NO RECORD THAT WE HAD PASSED ANY OF OUR PREVIOUS INSPECTIONS, clear on back to the framing stage of the project. This guy didn't have any of the paperwork from any of the myriad inspections we had sweated our way through all last year, no record of corrections made and previous inspector appeasements achieved. Yes, my heart did start to beat rather quickly at this point, while simultaneously dropping a few inches in my chest. As far as I know, the City is supposed to keep a paper trail which lets new inspectors know what old inspectors have proclaimed in all their infinite wisdom. Now, I knew we had passed the previous stages, and that we had the paperwork to prove it, but that didn't stop the initial moment of bureaucratic nightmare scenarios flashing before my eyes like a horror video on fast forward.

I pulled it together enough to point him in the direction of the evidentiary packet of inspection sheets that we had hung on the outside of the garage in a big plastic bag (thank you, Lord, for the invention of the Ziploc), and prayed fervently that none of the papers were missing. Inspector-man had me open the garage door, so that he could check that, yes, there were walls inside, and then started in on all his paper perusing. I was on the phone when the man with the power arrived, and fifteen or so minutes later, when I finished my call, he had still not finished his examination of the exculpatory evidence. So, I called my beloved to jibber at him while we waited for the verdict. I couldn't face the rest of the wait alone--not when the entire proceeding started with, "There's a problem." About ten minutes later, I looked out to see that the inconsiderate inspector had simply left, without telling me the verdict, or even letting me know I could close the garage door, leaving all of our wonderful power tools--the housing of which is the very reason for which we had gone through all the past year of self-inflicted, Alliance-pleasing hoops of pain--exposed to the avarice of any unethical pedestrian who happened to be passing by. How rude is that?

I've just one more grumble at the way the City does things. I'll share it now, and then hopefully put the whole episode mentally to rest. The most silly thing about the whole City hoops thing occurred this week. We had another inspection yesterday, which, according to the City had to happen before the "final." You might not believe that this is actually true, but I assure you, it did indeed transpire. The City required that they send another person--an entirely separate human being, making an utterly redundant trip to our house--just to make sure that we had grown grass in the yard. They couldn't send out the final inspector until this very important point was established. Now, I ask you, why couldn't the same guy who came to do the final inspection put a check-mark beside the "grass" column just as easily as the other guy? Is there some technique, know only to "erosion specialists" that enables them to determine that the green stuff growing out of the ground is, in fact, grass, which would justify a separate trip, with all the time, trouble and money that entails? That's just goofy thinking, and only a mindless bureaucracy would see any sense in it.

Okay, I think that takes care of the venting portion of this personal post. I now return you to its original point. Celebrate with us! The garage just passed inspection! The garage just passed inspection! Believe it or not, I'm awfully pleased, cynical and slightly contemptuous, but very, very pleased.

Progress!

This is a personal update post, for those of you who have followed the giant garage/shop building project from its inception last summer, through its many wandering offshoot projects and the woes of dealing with the Alliance (the City of Portland, Oregon), and its various codes and permit demands--moving on now to the remaining list of chores which have been filling our days, facilitated by the lovely spring weather that we have been enjoying for quite some time now. I thought perhaps some of you would be interested in where things stand. The rest of you can stop reading now; there won't be any cool science news or ranting about the state of politics, or anything of any actual import to the world at large. Heck, this update might not even be of interest to those who have read all the ongoing details of project-related trial and triumph that I have Meowed about over the last year. You have my complete understanding if the mere mention of our Power Tool Recreational Area makes your eyes glaze over, and I give you my full consent to bail on this post right now. Who, after all, besides Kedley and I, really cares about our long held dream of having a workshop in which we could play with our many beloved power tools? I have no illusions as I write this that it will be compelling reading for any of you, but I am self-indulgent enough to want to put it down anyway, as a continuation of the project "journal" which I have logged here in previous months. Blogging it has become part of the process for me, and at some point I will no doubt even post a set of "start-to-finish" photos to complete the log. That is, once we finally get it finished...

Anyway, the holiday weekend was the perfect blend of progress and rest. We started with a hike on Friday evening with a friend, which was a lovely boost before plunging in to the rabbit-trail project that was our Saturday focus. What we had to tackle Saturday morning was the direct descendant of one of the first "project children" the City required us to adopt and make our own. Back when we began the whole garage process, we discovered that our driveway had to be a foot wider for the city to allow us to build. This was a tight squeeze, and made it necessary for us to cut into a slope coming down from our neighbors' yard, build a retaining wall, and expand the driveway right up to the property line. Building the retaining wall was a huge project, which needed a series of sixty pound "Manor Stones," stacked five high, for a distance of about ninety feet. BIG JOB, which included digging out the hill, laying a gravel base, placing the stones just so, and then back-filling from the giant pile of dirt we collected in the process. After that, the actual driveway widening didn't seem like too bad a job.

Our driveway is made of concrete pavers, which we put in about ten years ago, so we knew how the whole thing was constructed, with compacted gravel, sand and pavers, in that order. (It's actually one of the reasons we chose this kind of driveway when the old one needed to come out. We can take the pavers up and put them down at will. It's not easy, but it's simple.) That part of the project went smoothly, but there was a bit of an issue that developed from the retaining wall. It became a matter of some exactness to open the door and get out of the car on the wall side of the driveway. Those Manor Stones are not particularly forgiving, and, if we wanted to spare ourselves a record of errors kept in the car door panels, it became clear we would have to repeat the widening on the lawn side. We simply needed more room to get out of the car, without being forced to step out into wet grass, by the necessity of retaining wall avoidance.

We knew what we were going to start on Saturday had to be finished on Saturday, and that if we didn't get it done, it was going to cause some problems for us. The pavers are held in place by a set of plastic braces pounded into the ground with spikes along the length of the edge. In order to add a row of pavers, we had to dig a trench the width of the expansion, fill it with compacted gravel, remove the edge pieces, level the base, smooth with sand, place the stones, and finally, replace the edge. The replacing-the-edge part is very important. Without it, the driveway would be off limits, as driving on it could cause the whole shebang to shift. This would be bad. Not being able to drive on the driveway, besides just being a general annoyance, would also severely hinder forward momentum in finishing other long-neglected garage-related tasks. Since the next two weekends are booked with peoplish things like weddings, it was the holiday weekend or bust, as far as getting the driveway finished was concerned. Long story longer: We got it done!! We feel most triumphant. We then got to top the day off with dinner with some dear friends of long standing (doesn't that sound better than dear old friends?), which was a great way to end a day of hard work, especially since one of these friends is an absolutely splendid cook. A day of progress. followed by a fab meal that I didn't have to prepare--what could be better?

Not only did we get the driveway completed, but we even found time to move on to other things. Even better, we gave ourselves Sunday off, to recharge our very depleted batteries, have a wonderful time of worship, watch some videos, go for a lovely walk around the golf course near our house, and eat some splendid Indian food. Good day. Then Monday we jumped back into the work with renewed vigor (after a healthy dose of caffeine--I try to avoid the stuff in general, but lately there are some days when it simply proves too useful to abstain.) Monday was another feel-good day, where we actually saw a project heading toward completion, rather than just starting out. If you remember our forty foot, by ten foot, by five foot high mountain range of dirt from the garage excavation (and I'm assuming you do--I doubt anyone who hasn't seen this garage thing through from the beginning is still hanging in there with reading this post), then you know that we created all sorts of raised beds and niches to tuck the mountain away bit by bit, and eliminate our own private "dirt dune."

The biggest of these is a twenty-two by eleven raised patio behind the new garage, where most of the soil found its home. Yesterday, we finally got the dirt levelled, the plant beds established with a plastic edging, and about three inches of gravel in place as the foundation for the flagstones that will be the patio surface. We were so excited to get this far. We had friends we haven't seen for years stop by unexpectedly, and we all sat out on the nice, shady, if slightly unfinished patio, and got to taste the first fruits of all that work. It was perfect--just what we hoped for. Bamboo and lilac shielded us from the glare of the sun, and we looked out over the first blades of grass popping up in the freshly-planted lawn below us. It was cool and comfortable, and wonderfully social, which is half the point of putting the thing in (the other half being the removal of the aforementioned mountain range.) Another big plus: since we were outside, I could sit there being happily hospitable, while NOT having a massive allergic reaction to the cloud of perfume that these particular (and very beloved friends) inevitably exude. I was a happy Kat.

So there it is. All in all, it was everything we could ask of a long weekend. Work, worship, play, and three whole days together. Kedley and I were, of course, sorry to see it end, but still satisfied. I took time in the midst of all of this to remember that it was Memorial Day, and think about the soldiers who have given their lives to make our home as we know it possible. We did not go, as a Boy Scout from church did this weekend, to put flags on the graves of fallen soldiers, nor did we take flowers to the sites where the earthly remains of loved ones who have gone before us have been laid to rest, but we do remember, and are grateful that what they have built endures. We pray to God that we who remain can build well on their foundation.

On that note, I'll be done with the Meow Personal Progress Journals, and head out into the cyber world to see what else the weekend hath wrought. I hope I find that others have made progress of various kinds over the past few days. I love progress.

Holey Ridiculous Stories, Batman

The trench has been dug (aren't we fast?), and Ked is at Home Depot buying the pipe to run from the gutters to the giant hole. I took a minute to check my email, which sent me to this Scrappleface post about the "confession" of Faye Turney, a female British soldier being held captive by the Iranian government. Scrappleface "reveals" that not only had the group of fifteen sailors and marines, taken captive by Iran on March 23rd, strayed into Iranian waters, but they were bent on invasion--on a direct course for Tehran--to take over the country and plant the Union Jack. A fifteen man invasion--sounds like a solid plan to me. Mind you, Scrappleface is satire, but the satire doesn't push much beyond the ridiculousness of the charges by Iran. GPS readings clearly place the Brits in Iraqi waters, and even if they had crossed the line, under international law, the most Iran was allowed to do was warn them away, certainly not take them captive and hold them for what's going on a week, all the while changing their story to try and keep themselves in "the right." (For some reason, the coordinates for exactly where those sailors were supposed to have been keep shifting. Guess they didn't figure on the GPS records.) Does Iran actually think they're fooling anybody? Looks to me like they're digging themselves a bigger hole than Ked and I did.

More Odds And Ends On A Sunny Day

It's a fine sunny day in Meowville, so it's out to the back yard to dig a trench and put up gutters. I sincerely hope so, anyway. It would be really wonderful if we could get both those things done in the short time allotted before the rain kicks back in--supposedly tomorrow. So, since I'm playing gopher again today, I'll just toss a few quick links your way to keep you entertained and address a few of life's more nagging questions. Such as:

Do dogs know they are dogs, and that you're not? New Scientist has the scoop.

What happens to food and medicine exposed to six-plus months of space travel? NASA's investigating as we prep to head for Mars.

What's happening on the ground in Iraq? Michael Yon is there, and as usual, is reporting what he sees. No sugar coating, no axe to grind.

Do geometric patterns occur in nature outside of snowflakes? They do on Saturn. There's a weather hexagon on Saturn's north pole. New Scientist has a link to a video.

That should keep you busy for awhile. I am now thoroughly caffeinated and ready to go wield my trusty shovel. As I dig, I must keep reminding myself, "People pay money for this kind of workout. This is good for me. It could be worse. It could be raining." Hopefully this will keep my attitude in check as I comply with the City of Portland's drainage codes. I'll try to spare you the anti-City rant today. It really could be worse. It really could be raining.

The Big Hole

Ked and I have been working hard the last couple of days, digging the hole that I whined about in my last post, and sifting the rocks out of the soil through a screen that Ked threw together for the purpose. I'd love to tell you that I have something fascinating or amusing to share with you, but, alas, all we've done is heavy manual labor, and unless you would find a catalog of our various aches and bruises interesting, I got nothin'. What I do have is a slightly blurry, badly balanced, randomly touched-up-for-visibility picture of the big hole with me in it. The rock pile I'm leaning on is just the medium rocks we pulled from the ground. Anything under three inches is going to be sifted from the soil and sequestered on a tarp to be thrown back in the hole around the dry-well. Anything over about eight inches got hauled to a raised patio we built last year--for decorative deployment. (What do you do when life hands you rocks? Make a rock garden!!)

I look remarkably cheerful here, considering how long it took us to dig that far.

We're heading back out today. There's a trench to be dug, and a retaining wall to be built, and gutters to install, and painting to finish, and... (Boy, I hope it starts raining again soon.)

Portland: Code For Frustration

We're getting a bit of a weather break here in the Pacific Northwest, so Ked and I are seizing the opportunity to return to the winter-weather-delayed yard projects left over from last year's big garage-building spree. I am now going to take a brief moment to rant against the City of Portland. Note the capital letter. I love the city of Portland, but I am flippin' mad at the City of Portland.

Last fall, the City demanded that we dig a four foot deep, four foot wide dry-well for the little three hundred square foot garage we built. What they want is a big old hole, with a plastic "well' in part of it, and the rest filled with rocks for drainage. The downspout from the garage gutters will empty into this well. What is frosting our cookies as we dig this giant hole is that they did not take into account that we live in "rock central." We have spent hours digging through ground that is basically one big rock bed--we are hitting stones from 1 inch to 1 foot in diameter every time the pick or shovel hits the dirt. There are literally thousands of them. All of this digging, just so we can fill half of the hole with rocks--rocks that are already there. Our yard drains like crazy already, and simply diverting the downspouts off the garage onto the lawn would have dealt with it quite nicely. WE DIDN'T NEED THE DRY WELL, except to satisfy some arcane code that doesn't take into account the conditions where we live.

I'm trying to remain calm, reminding myself that at least the weather is letting us get the stupid job done finally, but I must confess that my attitude toward the whole ridiculous project is not very Christ-like. The only thing that is keeping me from going over the frustration edge is the fact that we don't have to buy any of the rocks to fill the hole back in, since we are gathering them up as we dig. If we were going to have to purchase more rocks, I think I might start throwing them.

Okay, rant over. I think just writing this is helpful for processing the severe annoyance I feel. Sorry I have to take it out on you, but blogging is just so very soothing. I think I should have a tee-shirt printed, to wear while I'm satisfying The Alliance's demands. It should say, "I'd Rather Be Blogging." Ooh, I bet other people would want one too. I could start a whole new Internet-based business, and get rich!! Hmmm... I wonder what the City of Portland codes are for starting an Internet-based business...

Digging

For those of you who are remotely interested in the Big Dig and have been following its progress (not the horrendously expensive, obstacle ridden, near fiasco of a tunnel construction project in Boston, that became most expensive highway project in American history to date, but the less expensive, though no less budget crippling, obstacle ridden, infuriatingly complex garage/shop building project that has consumed Ked's and my money, time and limited patience for approximately the last five months), I have momentous news to report--THE GIANT DIRT PILE IS OFFICIALLY GONE!! Yes, our mountain of earth and rocks, produced by the excavation of the shop foundation, finally bit the dust, as it were, and none too soon, for, this being Oregon, if we hadn't disposed of it in time it was going to have to bite the mud. This is a big relief. There are now only about six more relatively major projects we have to do before the garage site can be inspected again by the erosion control inspector, and then by the building inspector for final approval. I wish I was exaggerating about what's left to do, but I'm not. We do, after all, live in the heart of The Alliance.

Now that you have the project update, perhaps we should move on to more interesting topics. I, for one, am ready for a break from even the thought of digging, and am instead spending my morning digging through various websites for information and punditry. I've read a couple things of note that I want to send your way. Although they are quite dissimilar in topic, I thought I'd toss them to you in one shot. I haven't taken the time to do any analysis of them myself, or to fully develop my own thoughts on what they have to say. I just thought they both were worthy of a recommendation for you to give them a look.

The first is a piece at Real Clear Politics, by Michael Barone, (via Instapundit) on the mental state of the American electorate with the November elections looming, why people are leaning the way they seem to be, and whether that's a good thing. The other is an article in The Weekly Standard, by Michael Yon, about journalists embedding with the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, why doing so has gotten harder in the last year, and why that needs to change. Neither of these pieces are fluff, or even particularly cheerful, and the one by Yon is quite long, but I really respect both these guys' opinions and think reading the articles was time well spent. I'd also be interested in any reactions you might have, especially to the Yon piece, so come back and share your thoughts if you feel like it.

The Alliance, And Iran Too

Home ownership can be a blessing and a curse. My husband and I are dealing with an ongoing ripple effect, a cascade of new labors springing from the garage that we had built over the summer. Much of the list is composed of hoops we must jump through to satisfy the city of Portland. It can be frustrating. Every contractor we've had working on the project has said how much the city over-regulates and forces people to over-build. We got a new list of "must-do" projects from the city inspector who came to make sure that no soil was going to find its way out from behind the retaining-wall barriers we have surrounding our back yard on all sides. It seems this is not enough. She tacked on a few more Herculean tasks to the considerable list we were already wading our way through.

Ked and I have decided that the city we live in is very comparable to the Alliance, from the sci fi movie Serenity. The Alliance is a core government in a vast solar system, with the central planets wielding control over all the outlying planets and moons. Although the outer planets fought for independence, they lost, and the Alliance controls just about everything. One of the main characters, River, is asked at one point why the outer planets objected to Alliance control, since the Alliance brought with it civilization, prosperity and technological advancement. River's response was, "They meddle." That so sums up our experience with the recent building project. It's not that we don't think there should be reasonable building codes, but for pity's sake, the city required that the garage have hurricane strapping!!--to keep it from blowing away with all those hurricanes we get here in Portland no doubt. Aargh.

So, we've been buried under a mountain of work the last few weeks, and the mountain seems to be growing, rather than shrinking. I think internal pressure is pushing it up from within, like when a volcano is about to blow. (Here in the Pacific Northwest we have lots of experience with volcanoes blowing. Ked and I can see Mount St. Helens from our front porch. We still miss the top. However, an eruption makes for some spectacular photographs.) Always an optimist, I'm hoping we can keep things contained and avoid a project-related eruption, but I fear the pressure will continue unabated for a while. All these time-consuming projects have been interfering with my blogging lately, though, so something really has to give. A girl really must keep her priorities in order.

Therefore, despite the growing "to do" list, I'm taking a little time this morning to snatch a few precious hours of reading, which I have been missing desperately of late. I turned to Instapundit to catch me up with the world, and he led me to this post at Confederate Yankee, about an ongoing low-intensity Iranian insurgency, supported by neighboring state's and some European connections, which is largely being ignored by the media. Apparently there have been several attempts on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's life in the past year, and there is more than one group resisting the Iranian government. CY has some speculation about the media's motivations for the downplaying of the situation which I think are pretty sound. It's likely the media wants to keep some access to Iran, just as various media organizations ignored stories of atrocities in Iraq before the war, so that they could keep "reporting" from Baghdad. Anyway, it's an interesting post, so check it out if you've got a minute. Actually, reading about Iran is a good reminder for me that, even though Portland still has Alliance written all over it, at least it's not being run by a gaggle of crazy apocalyptic mullahs. Counting my blessings now.

Sunday Satire

Here's something to keep you amused while I'm busy painting trim on my house. Scrappleface comes to my mailbox, so this satiric look at where terrorists come from was a quick and easy thing to send your way. Sorry I'm not able to spend more time with you all this weekend, but duty calls, and calls, and calls. If this keeps up, I'm going to see about changing my number. Celebrate with us, though. We got the garage and three sides of the house painted yesterday, with nary a raindrop to slow our forward march. It was even really warm, so the paint dried quickly enough I could start on the trim. Progress!!

p.s. If you see anything that I will want to read when I'm back, let me know in the comments. I'm sure I'm missing important world events while the paint dries.

Racing Against The Rain

Blogging will be light for the next couple of days, as we're trying to get our house and new Power Tool Recreation Facility painted before the Oregon wetlands preservation season starts in earnest. (I'm running out of creative names for the garage, but we should be done with the project soon, so I will stop babbling about our progress, and lack thereof, soon, much to the relief of many, I'm sure. Cutesy "new garage" names will then all be relegated to the Meow archives.) Anyway, since I hope to have paintbrush very firmly in hand this weekend, I don't think I'm going to get too many big science discovery, or political opinion posts written. Laptops and primer don't mix. However, I may toss out something I find amusing in a (hopefully rare) lazy moment, or things I consider particularly self-explanatory. This fits both categories. Egyptian blogger, Big Pharaoh, is fast becoming a personal favorite. If he keeps this up, I may have to put him on the official "My Favorite Links" list.

Update: Here's another BP link. Be sure to see this one. It's great.

We Can Rebuild Her

It's been raining here today, off and on, so any hope we had of making progress in ridding our back yard of the last of the excavation dirt pile was in vain. The pile o' dirt remains. Instead we've been hanging cabinets in the Disneyland-in-the-making-for-people-who-like-power-tools that is our new garage. They are cabinets, I might add, that we got for free when somebody started a kitchen remodel project. The "for free" part is especially gratifying. This building project was by no means cheap. The cabinets weren't cheap either, but somebody bore the cost for them that wasn't us. A happy thing in Meowville.

So anyway, my husband is off rescuing my stranded mother (car trouble), and I turned to my favorite down-time activity. If you don't know what that is, this is clearly your first time visiting my particular bit of Internet real estate. I'm catching up on a little reading. Almost any kind of reading material would do, except for communist propaganda, or the kind of magazines that used to come with brown wrappers over them, but today what caught my eye is a bit of tech talk.

Having recently had both my arms very actively engaged in holding cabinets overhead while my Kedley attached them to the wall, it struck me personally when I came across an article which talked about the first woman to receive a bionic arm. I couldn't help thinking about all the ways in life that we (most of us anyway) depend on the fact we have two working appendages, with all the appropriate moving parts. The Washington Post article, by David Brown, tells the story of Claudia Mitchell, who lost her left arm at the shoulder, in a motorcycle accident, and says that the first time she "peeled a banana one-handed, she cried." Obviously, the situation really is personal to her, and not just a mental "wow, arms are really important" moment. Her whole life was transformed with that accident, and how could that ever be made better?

What's amazing is that, while she's not growing a new arm, or anything, to replace the one she lost (science hasn't progressed that far, although when they do get there, I'm sure it will involve carbon nano-tubes), she has been given a reasonably-functioning replacement to the limb she came with at birth. When I said earlier that her new arm was bionic, I meant it. This isn't just a prosthetic part with no real function. Doctors actually moved nerve clusters to different muscles than they were originally connected to, making this new arm respond to Mitchell's thoughts.

Apparently, even when an arm is lost at the shoulder, higher up toward the brain the nerves still exist which transmit messages from the brain to our limbs. Those nerves can be adapted to trigger impulses to other muscles than the ones they originally controlled, so Mitchells' "hand and arm" nerves were attached to chest muscle, which twitches when she thinks about moving her hand, or elbow, or whatnot. That muscular motion is sensed by electrodes that let a computer in the bionic arm know which motors to activate to move in response to Mitchell's thoughts. By this method, she can grab things with her "hand" and move the arm at will. Right now, there are three motors in her arm. They're working on one that will have six, and allow her to reach overhead for things that she can't get to currently, which could be very useful if she ever needs to put up overhead cabinets. Wouldn't that be absolutely amazing?

According to Brown, the part of the chest muscle that has been wired to the hand nerve cluster actually feels as if it were her hand:

The person also ends up with a patch of skin about the width of a baseball that, when stroked, warmed or pricked, feels like a hand rather than part of the chest.

What's really cool about this is that eventually the signals will go both ways. Not only will Mitchell's mind send signals to the hand, but the hand will send signals to the brain as well. Sensors in the hand will transmit to the brain, through those nerve impulses that are now routed through the chest muscle, allowing her arm to send messages that "...will be perceived as sensation." Astounding, isn't it? The Bionic Woman is a reality. Brown says Mitchell is the first woman, and only the fourth person ever, to receive this kind of arm--the thought-controlled variety.

There are lots of things still being worked out, but the implications are mind-blowing. As this technology improves, accident victims and soldiers will be increasingly able to face future life with hope that whatever injured them won't be a permanently life-altering event. Who knows where this will lead? Scientists are constantly pushing the boundaries, and finding new wells of genius from which to draw. I find myself wondering if the day will come when bionic limbs will have such functionality and appearance that no one else even knows that the person playing tennis with them lost an arm, or a leg. Amazing, astounding, and mind-blowing. I'm running out of superlatives.

Hat tip: Futurismic

A Beating Heart, Or A Reasonable Facsimile

I have been wanting to post about this ever since I first read about it four days ago at Futurismic. I'm finally getting a rest after several days of being hard at it in the back yard. What was once the equivalent of a mountain range of dirt, from our recent excavation, is now merely a rather noticeable hill. You think I'm exaggerating, but at one point the range was about five feet high, eight to ten feet deep, and about forty feet in total length. See--mountain range. We have been building raised beds to tuck the soil in, a twelve by twenty raised patio, and disbursing the rest to level out the yard. Boy howdy, am I tired, but happy to have been very productive. Now I'm feeling like I deserve a good long stretch in the merry, merry land of blogs (mine and all the others I've been missing for days.) All's right in my little world.

So what wonderful and amazing thing I have been waiting to get to for the last four days? Red Herring has news of an extra-cool medical breakthrough:

The first self-contained implanted artificial heart received U.S. government approval for patients who are all out of options and would otherwise die.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that Massachusetts-based Abiomed garnered the green light for their device that aims to prolong the life of those with advanced heart failure who are not eligible for a heart transplant and are unlikely to live more than a month without intervention.

Now someone whose heart is completely shot, but who can't get a regular transplant, for whatever reason (most likely that a donor heart simply isn't available, I would imagine), can opt for the artificial one. Well, let's say the folks with good insurance can opt for the artificial one. At $250,000 a pop, the price-tag is not for the faint of heart. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) Since the artificial heart is implanted, the flesh and blood organ that's on the fritz is actually removed from the patient. The mechanical heart is a two pound monster, with a battery that's tucked into the abdomen. The charging process involves a power transfer coil and the patient's skin. Don't ask me how. That part isn't really intuitive, for the non-medically or mechanically trained (or maybe just me), and the article doesn't go into detail.

There are a few other limitations to the technology, besides price, which I'm sure will improve with time. One issue is size. The substitute heart, as I said, weighs in at two whole pounds right now, and is too large to fit into the chest cavity of most women. According to Red Herring, "Abiomed said it is developing a replacement heart that is 30 percent smaller, but has yet to start clinical trials." I would expect that the trend toward smallness that is the hallmark of technology (think cell phones and Ipods), would have the same effect on the artificial heart. Once the thing has been around for a while, and undergone the inevitable technological shrinkage, it'll probably make the Grinch's tiny ticker look oversized.

Another limitation that should get better with time is battery life. Right now, the internal battery can buy the patient about an hour away from a plug-in, enough time to wander around the hospital lobby for a bit of people watching. If you cart around an external back-up, the heart'll go two hours. Admittedly, that doesn't sound like much, but from what I've been reading about nanofiber batteries, pretty soon they'll probably be able to implant a battery the size of a postage stamp that will run the heart for the next decade. Two, if the patient doesn't take up jogging.

The Red Herring article looks at the medical results to date for patients fitted with this mechanical pumper. Right now the count of the patients who have actually opted for the artificial heart over the failing real one stands at 14. Most have gained a few months of life that they would not otherwise have known. One patient lived another 17 months, which is substantial when you consider what a breakthrough this is. One of the artificial heart recipients was even able to be discharged and go home.

I know that this doesn't necessarily sound all that exciting. We'd love to see every patient all better, and able to live out a full, healthy life. Most of these patients bought themselves a few more months of dreary walls and hospital food. However, they also helped in the progress of medicine, and those people who follow after them, who someday receive the smaller, refined, long-battery-life versions of this technology will be truly blessed because the first patients were willing to take the chance that what they went through would be worth it. Even for those who only gain a few months, that time could be so important. 17 months could be everything to that father who wants to be there for his daughter's wedding, or the mom who has a little more wisdom to pass to her children before she passes on herself. That's the benefit to patients in the short term. Over time, as the technology improves, the outcomes for patients are going to get better and better. This is a wonderful breakthrough.

Pics In Space

My Kedley and I have been having a busy time of late. We're still up to our elbows in garage construction-related projects, and only have a limited amount of time before the famous Oregon rain kicks in to make chores like painting and dirt pile moving considerably more difficult. We're making some progress. The retaining wall is built, the raised patio is almost complete and I think we've figured out where we're going to tuck most of the remaining mountain of soil left over from garage floor excavation. (We haven't constructed all the tucking spots yet, but at least we now know where they're going.) There's wiring and the like to get to as well, but that's an indoor task and much more rain-friendly.

For the past couple of weeks, however, we haven't been making any progress at all, despite the time sensitive nature of the work outdoors. We've been taking some time off to help out at our church with another "gotta get it done while the sun shines" kind of project. In order to save the every elusive dollar, a group of volunteers from our congregation have been hard at it, painting the outside of the building. Big building. Small congregation. Lots of man hours per man. Lots of man hours per woman for that matter. So anyway, today Ked and I were tackling some of the trim work way up high on the south side peak, and the crown moulding under the eaves. When I say way up high, I mean way up high. Ked and I are guessing somewhere between 45-50 feet at the top. Have I mentioned I don't like heights? Mercifully, unlike with the remodel we did on the inside of the church, we're not using ladders and scaffolds to get the assignment done. We have this handy dandy lift jobby, with a bucket big enough for two, that carries us right up into the sky and parks us next to whatever the target of the moment happens to be. Today, as I said, we were aiming for the peak. Have I mentioned I don't like heights?

Now you might ask what the heck I was doing climbing in that bucket if I'm not particularly happy with the idea of floating around forty or so feet in the air. Good question. The church has the lift for a limited amount of time, and we need to make the most of the time we have, and take advantage of it when people are available. Today, Ked and I were available. So up we went. I discovered something interesting while I was trying to concentrate on my paintbrush, and not on my discomfort. I really only found the whole thing stressful when it was moving. Travelling from spot to spot had me clinging to the sides a bit (although what good that would do if the whole thing toppled I have no idea. We were already harnessed in, so that's probably as good as it gets anyway.) Swaying in place because one of us moved too abruptly, or breathed too hard, or thought quick thoughts, was equally disconcerting. (I used that word a lot today.) On the other hand, in those rare moments when the bucket was still and I stopped to look around, it was kind of fun. Looking over the rooftops and even straight down at the ground was an interesting, if not pleasant experience. I'm not going to volunteer to re-roof the building, or anything, but I survived this portion of the painting, and am feeling somewhat triumphant. My husband probably suffered more than I did, just because I was a tiny little eensy weensy bit tense, but he survived that as well.

So, why did I tell you all this? Mostly just to get it all off my chest--a decompression moment after coming in for a safe landing--but also because being up there reminded me I hadn't checked out this month's space photos from MSNBC. (Just click on "see the slide show" and let the fun begin.) I had a look when I got home, and decided they are worth passing on to you. All of them are pretty darn cool and interesting. Some taken of space, some taken from space, but all taken of things and places you and I aren't likely to get to see in person any time soon, since I'm pretty sure most of us Earthlings won't be heading out on the space shuttle, or hitching a ride on the Cassini spacecraft anytime soon, especially those of us who don't like heights much. Have I mentioned that I don't like heights?

The Truth Will Out

I'm getting in a small reading break while my husband, manning the staple gun, catches up on tacking down the insulation I just put in place all over the garage. I'm trying not to touch anything inside the house, and I covered the chair I'm in with an old towel, to keep from spreading scratchiness all over the place. Hopefully it'll be enough not to make me regret caving to my longing for news and information. The lure of the computer is just too strong. I just can't resist the call of the Internet while I've got a minute or two free, but Ked'll be done soon, and then it's back to work for me. Once he's finished his stapling duties we get to tackle the ceiling together--definitely a two person job. I've already discovered that this batch of insulation is sentient, and has a twisted sense of humor, finding it ever so funny to fall down on my head while I'm trying to place it gently into its new home. Hmph!! You try to be kind, and what does it get you? Itchy eyes, nose, arms, neck....

Anyway, since I don't have lots of time, I went to the human filter of almost everything worth knowing on the Internet. Instapundit sent me to The Washington Times, which has informed me that truth is starting to overcome media indoctrination regarding WMD and Iraq. Jennifer Harper, writing for The Times, reports on the findings of a Harris poll, and says:

Half of Americans now say Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded the country in 2003 -- up from 36 percent last year, a Harris poll finds. Pollsters deemed the increase both "substantial" and "surprising" in light of persistent press reports to the contrary in recent years.

Some of the shift in public opinion has come since the press conference in June where Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-NY) announced the discovery of 500 or so Desert Storm era chemical weapons, with mustard or sarin nerve agent, the information coming from newly declassified documents.

There are other indications in the poll that American opinion is not all negative on Iraq as well:

Meanwhile, the Harris poll offered some positive feedback on Iraq. Seventy-two percent of respondents said the Iraqi people are better off now thanunder Saddam Hussein's regime -- a figure similar to that of 2004, when it stood at 76 percent. In addition, 64 percent say Saddam had "strong links" with al Qaeda, up from 62 percent in October 2004. Fifty-five percent said that "history will give the U.S. credit for bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq."

And although the response is tepid, American confidence in the Iraqis has improved: 37 percent said Iraq would succeed in creating a stable democracy, up five points since November.

Americans remain in touch with the realities of Iraq: 61 percent said the conflict has motivated more Islamic terrorists to attack the U.S. -- a number that has remained virtually unchanged since 2004.

I'm not generally too big on polling, especially political polling. The only poll that really counts politically is the one on election day, but Harper's article is interesting nonetheless. I do find it encouraging that information seems to make it to the people these days despite media reporting, or lack thereof. This thing we call the Internet has proven so useful in letting those of us who want more information than we can get from our local fish wrap satisfy our desire. Of course, you have to be careful on the Net, too, there's so much information, a good deal of it wrong, that you have to be sure you can trust your sources there, as well. However, at least online I can read everything from Instapundit to The Washington Times, and am not just stuck with what the local paper and network news anchors send my way. Choice is good.

Speaking of choices, my husband now informs me that I only have one available, and that's the choice to come out and take up my itchy toil once again. So, off I go. Feel free to pity us--unless you'd like to volunteer...? (Just kidding. The job will mercifully be done by the times anyone reads this. Aren't you glad?)

Lake Titan

I'm still not getting much of a chance to blog right now. My husband is taking the week off from his day job so that we can work on getting things put to rights in the construction zone that is our back yard. We didn't get to insulate or Sheetrock the garage/shop yet, because the inspector didn't show up till yesterday, but we've been making progress all the same. We put a retaining wall in all the way to the back of the shop over the weekend, got it back-filled and the path that runs along it constructed yesterday, and are starting the wallboard inside this morning. We, of course, chose a heat wave to push into full manual labor mode, making the whole process a lot stickier, but progress is progress, and we're grateful to be moving ahead. We're especially glad my Darling's back is holding up after his recent infirmity. So far, so good.

I'm not getting much reading in, but I did get a fun little alert from NASA this morning. "The Cassini spacecraft, using its radar system, has discovered very strong evidence for hydrocarbon lakes on Titan [Titan being one of Saturn's moons]. Dark patches, which resemble terrestrial lakes, seem to be sprinkled all over the high latitudes surrounding Titan's north pole. " They're still guessing what these lakes are made of, probably liquid methane or ethane, and they're still not sure that the dark patches are actually liquid lakes, but the evidence is pointing in that direction.

Scientists will continue to observe the areas, looking for evidence like changes in size, or surface roughness stirred by winds, to indicate whether they've guessed correctly. If they're right, Titan is "the only body in the solar system besides Earth known to possess lakes." Not exactly the place you'd want to go for a summer vacation. One usually heads to a lake for fresh air and exercise, but Titan's not really a fresh air environment, is it? All that methane and ethane might make it a little hard to head out for a hike, or row a canoe, wouldn't you say? What a shame; it would be such an adventure to head to a lakeside cabin off-world. Oh well, there's got to be a bright side, right? Hmmm, liquid methane...liquid methane...sounds like a possible built-in fuel depot to me. That's it!! Titan can be the gas station on the way to some other cool vacation spot that we'll discover any day now. It's not quite as fun as finding Shangri-La on some other planet, but it will have to do.

Prison Blues

I don't have much time to blog right now. We're hoping to get the insulation in, and the ceiling up, in our new power tool recreation area today. (You know, the garage.) So, what I'll do for you is send you to a Weekly Standard article I read last week about a court ruling "expelling a faith-based program from an Iowa prison"--giving Prison Fellowship the boot. It's an interesting read, including the history of penitentiaries in America. (I'll give you a hint. What's the root of the word penitentiary?)

It's The Network

I'm feeding my reading habit today. I haven't had many opportunities to read much of anything in the past couple weeks or so, focusing instead on a mad rush to get the prep work done before the contractors poured the footings for Power Tool Heaven (our new garage for those of you unfamiliar with our shop project), so I'm finding I have a lot to catch up on. They poured said footings yesterday. It was fun to watch the process. I'm looking forward to the day the concrete's ready to back-fill, so we can reduce the size of the mountain range of dirt that grew during the excavation. I get to figure out ways to tuck all the remaining soil into raised beds (yet to be built) and other creative repositories. Clearly, I'm still not nearly done with all the work outside, but I'm taking a couple of days off to regroup for the next big push. Lest you think my husband's a slacker (far from it), he hurt his back a few weeks ago, and I'd rather have him take care of himself than see him push it now only to end up down all summer with a chronic condition.

So anyway, I'm getting in some much longed for reading, and TCS Daily is my focus today. As a result, I'm going to direct anyone who's interested to a TCS article by Alan W. Dowd on the advancements in the U.S. missile defense system--you know, shooting missiles down out of the sky with other missiles, or lasers. There are some impressive gains, both technologically and in terms of the growing network of our allies working together to blanket the globe with the ability to defend the U.S., Australia, Japan, Turkey, and various European nations, among others, from the errant missiles increasingly threatening to come our way from the growing list of hostile or unstable countries that are getting their hands on advanced missile technology. The gains are impressive, and the threats are also increasingly daunting. It's a good rundown of where things stand.

Iraqi Security

I don't have much time for reading right now. We have an excavator coming this week to start prepping the ground for our new play room (you know, the shop we're building.) I did catch this news tidbit this morning, though. It seems that there's a bit of momentum being gained in Iraq, coinciding with the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and a surprise visit to Baghdad by President Bush. The visit by the President was expected to last about five hours, and included a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to discuss future steps in achieving security for the country. Associated Press writer Kim Gamel writes today that Iraq's new prime minister is promising to show "no mercy" to terrorists:

Security officials said tens of thousands of Iraqi and multinational forces would deploy Wednesday throughout Baghdad, securing roads, launching raids against insurgent hideouts and calling in airstrikes if necessary.

It looks like the new Iraqi government is starting to get serious about securing the more dangerous areas in Baghdad, which is at the heart of ongoing terrorist activity. Gamel went on to say:

Iraqi security forces planned to deploy 75,000 Iraqi and multinational forces in Baghdad as part of al-Maliki's ambitious plan to crack down on security in the capital, a top Iraqi police official said.

Bush's visit came on the final day of a two-day work session aimed at keeping up the momentum generated by last week's swearing-in of key Iraqi national security officials, and the U.S. airstrike that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Maj. Gen. Mahdi al-Gharrawi, the commander of public order forces under the Interior Ministry, said al-Maliki's plan includes securing roads in and out of Baghdad, banning personal weapons and implementing a 9 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew.

Al-Gharrawi told The Associated Press that the plan to be launched at 6 a.m. Wednesday would be the biggest operation of its kind in Baghdad since the U.S. handed over sovereignty to Iraq in 2004.

Although the country is not there yet, Iraq continues to make strides toward a fully functioning society. With the new government in place, there are escalating efforts to establish safety for its citizens. The Iraqi government is also taking steps to clarify to citizens which of the forces operating in the city are actually government employees, rather than "sectarian death squads" believed to have infiltrated the legitimate police. Special uniforms and badges will distinguish the real deal from the impostors. It may seem like standard operating procedure to anyone growing up Averageville, Anystate, USA, but this country is just starting to operate in anything like an organized fashion. Checkpoints and raids of terrorist strongholds are also in the offing, something we don't generally see much of in Averageville. These are some important steps for the government to be taking, especially as they take more and more responsibility for their own security concerns.

Some of the intended raids will be carried out based on intelligence gathered from the "safe" house where Zarqawi met his end. Officials expect terrorist action in Iraq to increase substantially in the weeks to come, in revenge for the death of Zarqawi, and, in fact, it has increased already. The government, however, is taking action of its own, according to Gamel:

More than 200 raids have been carried out since al-Zarqawi's death June 7, some directly connected to what the U.S. military has described as a "treasure trove" of intelligence gleaned from his safehouse. U.S. troops killed seven insurgents in a raid Monday that also killed two children not far from the U.S. bombing raid that killed al-Zarqawi.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, also said a "high-value individual" with a $50,000 price on his head was detained. He did not name the suspect, but said he was picked up based on a tip.

That's good news. The more terrorists they capture, the more information they obtain, leading to the capture of more terrorists, which leads to more information. It's a bit like a perpetual motion machine, except that the intended goal is to stop all terrorist motion completely. Hopefully the momentum will continue to swing in the direction of increased security. It certainly looks like both the Iraqi and U.S. governments are making a concerted effort toward that end.

Electricians, Nanoparticles, And Dancing

We’ve had electricians buzzing around here for the last couple of days. They’ve been amazing. Because we’re building a garage this summer (also known as a power tool recreation area), we needed to beef up our electrical system. We had to reroute the power where it comes into the house, because if you do any upgrading the city likes you to commit to a total overhaul. We put in a new meter with a main circuit shutoff up at the front of the house (the old one was in the back, with open wires that looped all the way around the building—scary and messy), and then ran a giant cable through the attic to a new circuit panel in the basement. By putting in a bigger panel, we will have room to expand the service into the garage, thus providing power to lots of lovely tools. Power tools. My eyes are glowing even as I type this.

This electrical upgrade went so smoothly. It was fun watching the experts at work. We had already replaced the panel once ourselves, about fifteen years ago. (We obviously did not upgrade enough, or we wouldn’t have had to repeat the process.) At the time, poverty made us brave, so my husband did most of the work himself, with a little consulting from an electrician we were acquainted with back then. The projects then and the project now were night and day. Ours took days, and we had to deal with the power being down for long stretches, some trial and error, a lot of frustrations, some damage to other systems on the side (plaster specifically), and an adequate, but not outstanding result. Theirs flowed like a waltz, intricate and precise. They were so fast, and so competent, and the results are so clean and orderly. They didn’t waste any effort, or damage any other parts of the house. Everything was purposeful and directed toward a specific goal. There was nothing random about how they did their job, and it made them an object lesson in efficiency. Our power was off for a sum total of two hours. Two hours--that’s efficiency for you.

So anyway, I started reading this article that I couldn’t help relating to the difference between our electrical fumblings and the productivity of the experts that we’ve witnessed over the last couple of days. It’s on a completely different subject, medical nanotech applications, but the lessons of efficiency hold, and the comparison to an intricate dance. In a report titled “Magnetic Field Acts as 'Remote Control' to Deliver Nanomedicine", Physorg.com reports on advances in efficiency in the fight against cancer (with potential applications for neurological and cardiac diseases as well), being developed at the University of Buffalo. It looks at nanoparticles as a delivery method for cancer fighting medicine, but with some interesting twists. As with any complicated dance, there are several steps involved.

The first is the development of the cancer treatment, in this case, photodynamic therapy. According to Physorg.com, Paras Prasad, Ph.D., is the executive director of UB's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry in the UB College of Arts and Sciences:

According to Prasad, photodynamic therapy is one of the most promising treatments for cancer; it's also being investigated as a treatment method for cardiovascular, dermatological and ophthalmic diseases.

PDT exploits the propensity of tumors to retain higher concentrations of photosensitive drugs than normal tissues. When exposed to laser light, these drugs generate toxic molecules that destroy the cancer cells.

Interesting, huh? The drug makes toxins when lasered, and tumors hold onto the drug more than normal tissue, so the toxins get concentrated in the tumors when the laser is applied, thus sparing the normal tissue to a certain degree. Cool. The photosensitive drug is not totally limited to the cancerous tissue, though, which does result in some side effects, the main one being that the patient has a strong sensitivity to light for four to six weeks after treatment, from the drug accumulating in the skin. The article doesn't go into how that manifests, but I would assume we're at least talking about a high risk of sunburn. No doubt there is damage to non-cancerous tissue from the toxins released by the photosensitive drugs when the skin, and probably the eyes, are exposed to light. Finding a way to keep the drug from wandering to parts hither and yon would be a good thing.

This leads to steps two and three in the medical dance. Two is how to get the drug to the tumor in very small quantities, just sufficient to damage the cancer and not the surrounding tissue. Three is how to get the drug to head for and stay in the target area, and not wander off into healthy tissue, so the side effects can be minimal. Step two uses our old friends, nanoparticles. For this application the University of Buffalo team created nanocarriers, developed from polymer micelles (whatever they are), tiny receptacles designed to carry the medicine, and hold onto it well during transport. Step three is where the twist comes in. They added iron oxide nanoparticles inside the nanocarriers. So what, you say? This is where it gets neat. They discovered that if they apply a magnetic field to these iron oxide enhanced nanocarriers, they can direct them where they want them to go:

In the experiments, nanocarriers were shown to be efficiently taken up by cultured tumor cells in the area exposed to the magnetic field, as demonstrated by confocal microscopy.

While the team has demonstrated this concept with PDT drugs, Prasad said the technique would be useful in delivering gene therapy, chemotherapy or practically any kind of pharmaceutical treatment into cells.

"Because the nanocarriers proved to be significantly stable and because they retained the PDT drugs, we are optimistic that they will be able to deliver a wide range of therapies to tumors or other disease sites in the body without any significant loss in the circulatory system or in normal tissues," said Prasad.

They now move on to step four in this medical Waltz--in vivo testing, which is a fancy way of saying they're going live. Preliminary studies in animals indicate that the magnetic fields work in the body the same way as in the test tube, with the magnetic fields causing the medicine to accumulate at the tumor site. That's way exciting if you ask me. I've seen people suffering the effects of chemotherapy before, and it's really incredibly hard what some cancer patients go through. The more they develop ways to limit the effects of various drugs to just the targeted tissue, the better. Advances like these are such a blessing to the people who are already dealing with the trauma of life-threatening illness, and the pain and exhaustion that come with them. What a great thing for doctors to be able to limit the trauma of the treatment itself.

I just find it amazing all the things that science is discovering as they build more and more on existing knowledge. The dance gets more intricate and the dancers get more adept. The treatment they're developing at UB is so like the work that our electricians did this week, efficient, precise, and clean, without wasted effort, or damage to other systems. They're combining the knowledge of photodynamic drug therapy, nanoparticles, and magnetic field theory, and making the whole system work. There's more work to be done, I grant you, and it's not a two day job, like our electricians pulled off, but considering what they're doing, I think they deserve a little more time--at least a couple weeks.

Redistribution: Round Two

My husband and I have been hard at it today. We're widening our driveway and putting in a garage. (I call it a garage, but anyone who knows us will cry foul and tell us to call it what it is--a shop.) We've reached the age where we have a little more money, and a lot less energy, so we're doing something we've never done before. We're hiring the shop built. There's still a lot of prep work to be done, though, and we can't afford to hire it all done, so we're putting our middle-aged bodies through the wringer a bit, reminding ourselves that we ought to be grateful for the exercise. People pay money for this kind of workout!!

Anyway, I'm taking a break from the exercise regimen for a few minutes, so I just got a chance to read the second part of the series at TCS Daily by Tim Worstall about a simplified system for the redistribution of wealth that I posted about last week. It boils down to eliminating all forms of welfare in our country, and replacing them all with a $10,000 check to every citizen 21 or older whose income falls below a certain threshold. You can find my post here, and his original article here. Last week's discussion was addressing the inevitable objections from the right side of the political spectrum, and why the new system would be an improvement over the old. Today's looks at how the left will respond to such a notion, and why they should be jumping on the bandwagon.

Unlike the conservative element, which is liable to respond favorably to reduction in bureaucracy, but object to the notion of handing money to people who don't earn it, the progressive argument is liable to be the reverse--no problem with the handing out money part, but a big problem with losing control over who gets it, and how it's spent. Worstall says that how the notion is received by liberal politicians will be a big indicator of what their motives are. Do they actually want to help people get out of poverty, or do they want to keep holding the purse strings?

Worstall points out the two main advantages to the proposed system that the sympathetic progressive ought to embrace. He says the Plan "increases equality of opportunity and inverts the perceived power imbalance between labor and capital." He argues that being handed lump sums of money could open doors for the less advantaged to escape the poverty trap.

There are indeed those born into, through no fault of their own, positions where climbing up out of poverty is almost impossible. There are many different possible ways of helping them but the most efficient is simply to make cash grants to all. Everyone, therefore, has the basics for survival and can turn their attentions and efforts to whatever it is that they wish. Those who seek education, an improvement in life can do so, those happy to laze on the porch can, as well. But what the Plan might do is to make it possible for all to unlock their potential, if they should so wish.

He goes on to discuss Marxian theory, and the outcome of taking power out of the hands of the employer/oppressor.

In Marx's original analysis, still fervently believed by some today, capital will ever conspire against labor and attempt to engender a situation where there is a large reserve army of the unemployed. These unfortunates will have no option but to sell their labor at whatever miniscule price the oppressors are willing to offer, leading to ever fatter profits and the ever increasing immiseration of the proletariat.

If that is, indeed, the view of the world people really believe in, then The Plan is actually the answer. By providing an unconditional grant sufficient to survive upon, this "power structure" is subverted. The unemployed cannot be forced to accept lower wages for they can survive with none.

Worstall's conclusion is that those liberals who really want to make the world better will support the idea of simplifying the redistribution process, taking the money right to the people. The rest will show by their reluctance the true nature of their aims--power and money. His argument is a bit more complex than this, but this should give you the basics. His two essays combined make for an interesting analysis, and I find a good deal of merit to the notion that if the government is going to hand out money, it might as well do it as efficiently and effectively as possible.

As I contemplate going back outside to fill another wheelbarrow full of dirt, I find myself thinking about the relationship between money and opportunity. I know that if I had more money, I would have the opportunity to hire someone else to wield the shovel I'm about to pick up. Of course, then I'd have to hire a personal trainer.