Pretty content tonight. Smattering of reasons. Good things. Bad things. Typical things.

Here's some of those "typical" things: Four students wounded in Madison Township, Ohio; 3 white supremacists attack multiple Hispanics men and women at a public park in LA.

One of the "good" things was discovery of a galaxy—named IC1011 in some systematic way—that is SIX MILLION LIGHT YEARS wide!!! By way of comparison, the Milky Way is 100,000 light years wide with each light year being roughly six trillion miles. So, our Milky Way is 100,000 times 6,000,000,000,000 miles for a whopping 600,000,000,000,000,000 miles. That distance in and of itself is mind warping. Now they've found a body of stars whose width is six million light years times (as in multiply) six trillion miles 36,000,000,000,0000,000,000 or something like that. Boom! Head just exploded.

Found this interesting:

To mark Women’s History Month, the personal finance website WalletHub provided its own analysis of the "best and worst" places in the United States for women to live. Evaluating all 50 states for “women’s economic and social well-being” and “women’s health care and safety,” the researchers concluded that Minnesota is the best place for women to live in the United States, followed by Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

What I found most interesting in the ranking is the list of the worst states:

43 Georgia
44 Texas
45 Oklahoma
46 West Virginia
45 New Mexico
46 Mississippi
47 Arkansas
48 Alabama
49 Nevada
50 South Carolina
51 Louisiana

I'd say that this shows it ain't much fun being a cowgirl, or a Southern Belle, or a Mid-Atlantic something or other. 

Amanda Marcotte is a politics writer for Salon and she wrote this in support of Trump:

Look, someone has to win the Republican nomination. In this particular contest of villains, Trump is the least-bad option. Cruz seems like a sociopath who thinks he’s a prophet. Rubio just perpetuates that myth that the politics of nihilism are OK so long as the figurehead is handsome and genial enough. A Trump nomination, on the other hand, would puncture any remaining illusion that the Republican Party is a home for serious people, instead of a den of misanthropes and bullies that see politics solely as a way to preserve their own privilege while screwing over everyone else.

That, and it will probably be easier for Clinton to beat Trump than either of his opponents.

I am declaring that all residents of Meland should watch The West Wing on NetFlix before election day. Recognizing that it is a fictional construct, I am still convinced that every effort was made to reflect the reality of our White House. Proof of that I believe is offered via Season 3, Episode 19 in which segments are interspersed by interviews with people who actually held the jobs being portrayed in the series.

When I compare what I see in the series to the current presidential candidates, I feel a mantle of dread descend on my shoulders and circle my throat.

I understand many of the fears Trump supporters display. We all have fears. Everybody is getting tense. There seems to be an increase in murder-suicides. Guys for the most part who kill in response to their dissolving universes. A final fuck you to the universe. What terrifies me is that I think it has only just started.

I despair when I see what we are allowing our civilization to become. Our time is passing. This is what it was like in the long decline of Rome (amongst others).

Politics driving me crazy again.

Having a hard time accepting that Trump is gaining so much traction. He is vague, has no specific policies, he lies, and is hostile to anyone who doesn't agree with him. In addition, the people who are endorsing him give me the willies: Paul LePage, governor of Maine; former KKK leader David Duke; Chris Christie of New Jersey (a loud-mouth bully backing a loud-mouth bully).

I'm somewhat hopeful that the Trump University fiasco will burn Trump. Some many people who trusted his bluster lost so much money. $36,000 just so they could take a picture with a cardboard cutout of his highness Trump.

Despite all of this, I still dread Ted Cruz even more than Trump.

I see that the big corporation "news" companies are moving to shut down the rhetoric of left-leaning MSNBC. This time is Melissa Harris-Perry, a black professor from Wake Forest University, who hosts a weekend show on Saturday and Sunday. I can't say that I watched her on a consistent basis—she "specializes" in diversity, minority issues and women's affairs—but I often ran her on the kitchen TV while I did my weekend chores. Slowly but surely the media is quieting dissent and outspokenness. Media belongs to the 1% now; gone are the days of a truly oppositional press.

Had no idea when I woke this morning how much would be accomplished by the time I went to bed.

First step was typing a list of med prescriptions I need renewed and faxing it to the doctor.

Sitting there after faxing the doctor, I decided to start my tax returns. I dread that task. Not so much because I hate taxes because frankly I'm proud to pay them. Not only did I start them, I finished them and filed them as well. I'm always relieved when I get them done. My big problem is that I fear I will do something wrong and invite the intrusion of the government into my life.

A run-through of the news brought me to an article about how many people applied for up to 14 astronaut positions are available. Here's an original article from the Net.

Explosion in astronaut applications stuns NASA, shatters record

FEBRUARY 21, 2016 BY DAN TAYLOR

Thousands of people have applied for just 14 open spots.

NASA has gotten absolutely buried with applications for the agency’s 14 open positions, easily setting a new record.

A total of 18,300 people submitted resumes for 14 open astronaut positions between December 15 and February 18, according to an Engadget report.

The previous record was 8,000 people in 1978, and the new number is almost three times the number of people who applied in the last hiring round in 2012. Clearly, NASA’s bold vision for future manned missions to as far away as Mars is resonating with people.

Part of it is due to the long stretch of time since NASA hired astronauts last, but much of it is probably the recent successes in space — flying past Pluto and Ceres, landing on a meteor, and other accomplishments — as well as the success of films like Interstellar, The Martian,a nd Gravity.

NASA plans to award the astronaut job to between eight and 14 of the 18,3000 applicants. NASA’s Selection Board will review the hopefuls and interview a handful of them over the next year and a half, announcing the new astronauts by 2017, after which they will start a rigorous two-year training regimen.

So glad to see that others believe in heading to space.

Fun day.

Ran an errand out to a nearby town then took mother-in-law and mom to lunch at pizza house.

Had my old iPhone activated for mom so she can finally stop fretting about the minutes on her Tracfone. Now she doesn't have to worry about minutes at all (or those damn minute cards we always had to get). She's experimenting with it already. Yeah!

Life has intensified lately. Though much accomplished lately, disasters—like the exploding frozen seltzer bottle all over the keyboard—balanced those ups.

Finally got off my butt and brought Buddy Tip Toe to the vet for a checkup. Thought he might have ear mites because of head shaking but turned out to be growths in his ears from ear wax production. Got medicine for ears, toe nails clipped, rabbis booster, general checkup. In his regard, today I managed to get to BJs for a case of gravyed canned food and two large containers of litter. We are set for the winter now.

Yesterday we lost power three times for a total around three, four hours. Thrilled to find that my wired-in generator worked perfectly. It kicked on whenever I lost power and automatically turned off when the electricity came back on. The only difference for me was hearing the generator when it was on; power was consistent through the whole evening. All that money justified itself last night.

Today's trip to BJs for Buddy supplies also resulted in getting mom whole wheat waffles she likes, some calcium supplement and a bag of pecan pieces for her coffeecakes. I got Arizona tea and dental floss.

Spent enjoyable time with daughter this afternoon chatting at Chili's. I think we shall try to do that more often in the future.

Along with electric power outages over the last couple of days, came outages in communications activities as well. TV reception turned to crap and nothing was watchable on Comcast's normal channels. Luckily the Internet and streaming services like Amazon and NetFlix were fine and that got me to sample West Wing. Considering how much of my time is spent contemplating politics I thought this might be a way of thinking about what likely occurs in the inner sanctions given the program's rep as "authentic." Can remember seeing episodes here and there but never watched on consistent basis during its run.

Meanwhile, I've been sharing viewing time between on air stuff, 30Rock and now West Wing (at least so far with early episodes).

It has been no end of comfort having my alien friend live here. I'm still trying to figure out his game. We have much eye-to-eye contact and I'm trying to interpret his snickering vertical pupils. He's haughty, arrogant, fun, playful, friendly, unassuming. (His fuzziness fills me with inexplicable lightness.) I laugh when I think about all those experts pontificating on what communicating with aliens will be like. Hell, if you alien language experts can explain to me the world of cats, then I'll will consider what you are saying about chatting with extraterrestrials.

So, having taken care of a number of life's daily demands (filled oil tank, booked lunch with moms, got groceries, etc.), I peer from my timeship pilot room to see: chaos. Nearly all the world is in chaos! Look around. Things are really not good. It's so close to collapse. All of it.

Nothing to do but run the rapids. Survey the current downward. Look for a gentle eddy. Survive in a backwater.

Wonderful day today.

Temperature started at -9 when I woke up to the +10 it sits at now, but I'm hiding inside to stay warm.

Got so much done yesterday that I decided to get back to some studying. I spent an hour working with my Arduino (redid the first "blink" level; then learned how to make the led fade in an out; last, got to use a photo resistor to determine light level in a room).

After that, I got back  into my Algebra course. It's been a while since starting it so I started from the beginning. Today was signed integers and concepts of a number line.

As I expected, the news today was Scalia's death. Impressive man no matter what your politics.

TV wise

Found two shows I enjoy. One, 30 Rock, ran its whole run and I don't remember it from that time. Came across it on NetFlix and decided to dip in. Binging ever since. Some of their work is brilliant. The show is like a boxing match: two unexpected quick left jabs and then they hit you with a right cross you never see coming. The show is one surprise after another. Surprise guest stars (Steve Buschemi, Betty White, Brian Williams), twists in plot, merging story lines. Just started the fourth season.

Unexpected surprise was finding a PBS British import called Vicious. Old actor queen and his significant other with a couple of eccentric friends and handsome young neighbor. Dialogue is pointed, sarcastic and vicious. It's also kind, warm and loving. Only one season and I watched it all.

Holy smokers!

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a leading conservative voice on the high court, has died at the age of 79, a government source and a family friend told CNN on Saturday.

Scalia died in his sleep during a visit to Texas.

A government official said Scalia went to bed Friday night and told friends he wasn't feeling well. Saturday morning, he didn't get up for breakfast. And the group he was with for a hunting trip left without him.

Someone at the ranch went in to check on him and found him unresponsive.

This is a HUGE impact at a pivotal time in history.

Less than six hours after the announcement of his death, politicians are ALREADY fighting over his replacement !!!!!! This is going to be another social bomb.

Up to the moment of Scalia's death, I had been thinking about those Carrier workers in Indiana who were told their jobs were being sent to Mexico.

 RawStory 021316 by Tom Boggioni: "In a video uploaded to YouTube, a gathering of workers at an Indianapolis air conditioning manufacturing plant are stunned and enraged when told they’ll soon be out of work because the company is moving their jobs to Mexico. The large crowd of employees of a Carrier Air Conditioner manufacturing plant in Indianapolis can be seen milling around as a speaker — dressed in a suit and standing on a stage — addresses them and gives them the bad news.

“The best way to stay competitive and protect the business for long-term is to move production from our facility in Indianapolis to Monterrey, Mexico,” the man can be heard explaining.

The crowd reacts with shouts of outrage, including one man who can be heard yelling, “F*ck you.” 

I was happy to see some of the area conditioner installers already boycotting Carrier products. 

Arduino Update

This is what my latest Arduino project looks like:

Lots  of components, wire everywhere. What does it do? No idea. Can't get it to work. stripping it down and starting over. 

Bonanza!

What a day. Haven't felt much like writing lately but so many things are happening.

First, the discovery of gravity waves. Incredible. This opens up whole new vistas on the universe. It is never a bad thing to learn more about the universe in which we are immersed. This is a wonderfully exciting discovery.

Second, the militants at that Oregon bird sanctuary is over. All the people who took over the site have now been arrested. I care because lands designated as federal property (our parks and wildlife areas) belong to all of us, not just the landowners whose properties abut federal lands.

Then there is the political stuff. Two more have dropped from the GOP presidential race: Chris Christie of New Jersey and Carly Fiorina. Christie I dislike because he's a bully and loudmouth; Fiorina turned out to be a blatant liar. Neither had the skills to be president of the most powerful country on the planet.

In another political situation, I read that Ken Paxton, attorney general of Texas, could be disbarred. Paxton is being probed for ethics violations for telling county clerks that they could deny marriage licenses to same sex-couples, another potential setback for the state’s top lawyer, who is already facing felony charges.The Texas Bar Association ordered its Board of Disciplinary Appeals this week to look into Paxton and his office, Houston attorney Eddie Rodriguez said on Thursday. If Paxton is found to have an ethics violation, he could be disbarred, which means he could no longer serve as attorney general. 

I just don't get why guys like him think they have a right to determine what a woman can or can't do with her body. None of his business.

Ever notice that when congress assemble a committee to investigate women's health issues, there are never any women on the panels of experts who appear to testify! What arrogance.

Read a piece about how the pollsters got it wrong again with the Iowa caucus.

"Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) pulled off an upset win in Iowa over not only Donald Trump but also the polls, which almost universally showed him behind. In the runup to the caucus, many analysts predicted that lower turnout would favor Cruz, while an influx of new voters would augur a Trump win. But instead, Monday's voting brought both record turnout and a victory for Cruz."

Not particularly thrilled with the outcome—I think Cruz is even less desirable than Trump—but glad to see that once again the "experts" are proven wrong. (I'm glad to see that happens to my fellow experts as well as it often does to me.)

The caucus itself doesn't distress me because it's the very beginning of the candidate bouts. The results do teach me about Iowa and its people. Iowa and me would not be a good fit.