Journals
Wednesday,Jan 10 2007, 05:06:47 AMUPCHUCK 101
Upchuck 101
By
Grey Wolf
When I was 12 or 13 I read an article in, I believe, Reader’s Digest, entitled, I believe, "The Human Ostrich". It made a major impact on my adolescent brain. The story was about a man who could swallow a variety of objects and regurgitate them with great control...by size, weight, texture, and order in which they were swallowed. He said that he came by this talent by tying a small piece of potato on a string and swallowing it then practiced reversing the natural peristaltic motion while pulling the potato up, out of his stomach, on the attached string. "Why not learn this potentially valuable talent?" I immediately thought, heading for he kitchen where I cut a small piece of potato to which I attached a piece of thread. Swallow; slowly pull up while controlling the muscles of the stomach and throat to help push the potato up and out of the mouth; swallow; slowly pull up while controlling.....
In short order I had mastered the basic techniques of the Human Ostrich...and I was, at most, 13 years old.
When I was around 30 years old and in prison I used the techniques I had learned as a child to loose weight. Not some ‘sick’ eating disorder but a well structured, controlled program to limit my caloric intake. I lost 45 pounds in less than two months...and was never really hungry and never compulsive about my upchucking. I would, pretty much, upchuck all high caloric foods. I would eat so that the material I was going to upchuck would sort of be on the top of the stuff in my stomach. I use to joke that I could upchuck the pudding and stop as soon as the salad started to appear.
It was so easy for me to upchuck (and still is) that I had to be careful to not ‘burp’ and loose some of my meal.
When I was around 55 I picked up a bottle of VERY CONCENTRATED POISON and gulped down two large mouthfuls. I immediately realized that it wasn’t the cough syrup that I thought I was drinking; it was a concentrated tick and flee poison. The instructions were very emphatic: "After it was mixed, one tablespoon per gallon of water, wear gloves and if you get it on you, wash immediately." I had just swallowed, perhaps, a quarter of a cup of the poison.
Instantly, without thinking, I followed the poison with a glass of water. I jumped up a down for a few seconds and then, leaning forward to open my throat and make the expulsion of poisonous water easier, I opened my throat, flexed the bottom of my stomach and pushed upward with my muscles, and expelled the poisonous water in a steady, even, easy stream...inspite of the gagging chemical quality of the poison. I was able to easily upchuck the first water followed by additional water and upchucking. [ Later, when reading the instructions should someone accidentally consume the poison DO NOT REGURGITATE. If the poison were to be aspirated ( sucked by accident into the lungs) the victim would probably die.] I didn’t feel that I had it all and it was VERY POISONOUS so I went to the Emergency Hospital in Coquille. I took the bottle of poison with me. Once there and in the examination room the doctor began to hunt down the right treatment for the poison.
In about five minutes the doctor returned, on the run, with nurses in tow. Within seconds I had a tube down my throat into my stomach and the process of pumping my stomach began.
The doctor told me that the poison I had consumed was the most poisonous substance possible for a home owner to have...and that it was the same poison released on the Kurds by Sadam Husien. The way it works is that it turns a person’s body fluids into a very tacky substance and the victim chokes to death on the spit that gets caught in the throat.
As they pumped my stomach into a bowl I found that I could string my spit from one side of the bowl to the other and that it had enough substance to hang there between the two sides of the bowl like a piece of string....so I made strings all over the bowl as my stomach was being pumped....and I had upchucked almost all of the poison within moments of drinking it.
Had I not been so comfortable regurgitating I might have aspirated some of the poison so knowing the tricks of the Human Ostrich may have saved my life. Soooooo, I’ve lost weight easily and, perhaps, saved my life as a direct result of that first small piece of potato on a string.
Grey Wolf
Wednesday,Jan 10 2007, 04:55:58 AMTruth? - After the Clinton Impeachment Effort
"TRUTH?" (written just after the Clinton impeachment proceedings)
Is there 'Truth'? The CNN news show, "Crossfire" brings together bright, investigative reporters from both the Right and the Left who ask major Players penetrating questions and then debate 'truth' before the American public.
This is an opportunity to make 'your' side look good, if it is actually possible and, if not, twist things so they don't look too bad. With cameras at every angle, close-up lenses allow the American public to look right into the eyes of the politicians and news folks...AND the 'truth' evades us.
The Right and the Left are entrenched and they attempt to entrench the viewers with their version painting the other side as foolish, immoral, liars and/or un-American for so MUST they be if there is a 'Truth'.
I watch the debated with its plothora of input from the brightest most learned scholars and experts go on day after day and NEVER, not once, as far as I know, did anyone say, "Oh, I see. With that new information I must conclude that you are right and I was wrong." NEVER, not once, as far as I know, did any of the politicians involved in the impeachment of Clinton efforts allowed nonpartisan information to sway them from their party's course.
Therefore I must conclude that all (with the vaguest limitations) politicians are self-serving, immoral liars and, in my book, that makes them un-American.
Thank you Republicans for your partisan vote in the Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President Clinton. Like a slap in the face you opened my eyes to the truly foul nature of politics. Republicans, you will eventually pay at the ballot box and once the change back to democratic leadership is in place the Democrats will continue to win elections until the Republican party weans itself from the corrupting influence of big money. That, in my opinion, is the silver lining of this entire, sordid affair.
Shame on you Republicans and shame on us if we allow you any semblance of political power. The Democrats are also politicians, therefore falling squarely into the enunciated possibilities for politicians; however, when you view a group of Democrats you see diversity: Men, women, white, black, Mexican, heterosexual, homosexual and a rich tapestry of other American parts. When you see a group of Republicans you see a bunch of well-to-do to rich white people who are indebted to international corporate interests from the tobacco industry, to the insurance industry, to the pharmasetcal industry, to anyone with money willing to give it to them. It's distressing to me to look at a group of Republicans. What I see does not represent America, not by a couple of Uncle Tom blacks and a tiny handful of Jesse Helmish women. Olympia Snow is a hero of mine and she is a Republican so this evil Republican coat does not fit all but it does fit almost all.
Republicans you have shown me that politics is a dirty, liar's game and that there is no 'Truth' bigger than your own self-serving interests. Sorry, Democrats, one of which I've been for all of my adult life, you too are pretty much corrupt to the core. You may be more diversified and appear to be concerned with ‘the people’ but the test is in the taste and you taste lousy; there are exceptions but not enough to save the party from great guilt and collective shame.
As always, the corporations win...with the Republicans and with the Democrats. Money is the grease that keeps capitalism chugging right along and almost all of the politicians look like greased pigs.
...and we're trying to convenience others to join us in democracy and capitalism....JUST LOOK AT US!!!
Monday,Jan 1 2007, 06:50:16 PMFive (5) Alternate Energy Possibilities
Five (5) Alternate Energy Possibilities
1) "Slosh Power" - To claim energy from motion one must have a source of weight exerting kinetic energy on a contrivance that changes kinetic energy into electricity. On a body of water inflate a large bladder with a rigid surface platform; in the middle of the platform is a 5' tall pillar made of a heavy-duty spring; on the top of the spring is a much smaller second rigid platform; on top of the smaller, upper platform is another bladder which is filled with water; all sides of the upper, smaller platform are connected to cables that are connected to the kinetic-energy-to-electricity contrivance. When there is motion on the bottom, much larger platform, that motion is translated to the upper, smaller platform through the spring-pillar causing the water filled bladder to ‘slosh’...and endless ‘sloshing’ will result in endless electricity. Even when the water is calm there will generally be enough movement to cause the water in the upper bladder to ‘slosh’. This unit would need only be anchored and all ‘commands’ could be issued through a satellite antenna. When a storm approached the water could be pumped from the water bladder and then most of the air pumped from the lower bladder which would allow it to ‘ride out a storm’. Once the storm had passed the command to inflate the air bladder then to pump a couple of tons of water (however much) to the upper bladder would be sent. ‘Slosh Power’ should produce constant energy at almost no cost.
2) "Wire Power" - When a molecule of ‘air’ traveling at 30 miles an hour hits a surface the kinetic energy exerts its force. You will get the same usable kinetic energy if that surface is an angled blade with 100 square inches of surface or 400’ of 1/4" wire with the entire face of the wire being available as a surface on which the molecules of air traveling at 30 miles an hour can exert its force. The ends of the wire are attached to a kinetic-energy-to-electricity contrivance. The surface of the wire is a curved cup that spirals around the wire core acting as a funnel utilizing the kinetic energy of the wind on the wire. There are no moving parts, other than a twisting wire, so birds won’t be in danger; such wires can be disguised so as to not be obtrusive. "Wire Power’ should result in lots of free electricity at almost no cost.
3) "Lens Power" - A simple lens suspended at precisely the right distance from the side of a metal chamber would focus the suns rays on metal, heating it to however hot you want it to be (a lens could focus enough energy to burn a hole through the metal, if that’s what you wanted); the water inside the closed chamber would begin to boil creating steam which could ‘exit’ the closed chamber through a single tube in which a rotating wheel is mounted. The upper, cooling part of the aparatus is cooler so the heat will rise toward the cooler region. Even if the rising steam has to build in pressure before the wheel is turned, when it does turn it will make electricity.
The steam turns the wheel as it passes up the tube to the ‘cooling chamber’ where ambient environment temperatures turn the steam back to hot water which moves back into the steam chamber through a ramjet type machination. The lens would have to move with the sun to continue to focus the suns ray on the metal plate. A rechargeable battery will be needed to keep the lens at the necessary angle to the sun until the unit began to produce electricity then it would recharge the battery, continue to move the lens in the proper alignment to the sun and create extra energy...depending on the size of the lens and the electricity producing mechanism.
4) ‘Magnetic Power’ - A wheel with a series of magnets, positive end down, around the outside parameter. The wheel is wired to make electricity when it turns. A strong magnet, negative side up, is attached to the frame so that the wheel, with its series of ‘+’magnets will be attracted to the pulling power of the fixed ‘-’ magnet. Once the wheel has started to turn, the fixed magnet will exert most of its force on the closest ‘+’ magnet with some of its peripheral energy being exerted on the next to the closest ‘+’ magnet; when the relationship of the two magnets is at exactly the right angle, an aluminum plate, by its own weight, flips between the two magnets. Now all the energy of the fixed magnet is exerted on what was the second ‘-’ magnet and is now the primary ‘-’ magnet. Once the aluminum plate falls into place a rotation begins that should be perpetual and so, even if very slow, a reasonable producer of electricity. The sequence is repeated endlessly so, at a rate depending on the various configurations, lots of free, very, very inexpensive electricity should be available. The wheel can be made any size and magnets are forever.
5) ‘Freeway Power’ - Freeways (and other areas with vehicular traffic) can be made with levers beneath the road surface which would ‘tilt’ with the weight of a vehicle passing over the surface of the road. The kinetic energy that would be translated from the weight and movement of the vehicle to the levers would be immense and to produce electricity the motion need not be enough to compromise the comfort of the driver. When tons of weight are in motion that inherently represents immense amounts of energy, a part of which may be harvested, if the harvesters are able. Consider the power of tons of metal moving through space.
"Levers, springs and pulleys, Namaste (I honor the God in you)’.