Bayesian Flooding and Facebook Manipulation photo 261465 740 200 right photo For the past few months I ve been conducting an open online experiment It s really an extension of a seven year project I ve been working on but this newer portion is exclusively focused on Facebook The purpose of the experiment is to explore how much control a typical Facebook user has over his or her personal information online not what is externally visible but what is internally being analyzed In other words is it possible to manipulate the flow of information being collected for advertising and marketing purposes The consideration behind this idea is due to three basic realities ol li The advancement of online technology and communication is not going to slow down much less stop Social networking plays a vital role in this li li In order to participate in society one cannot simply hide from technology li li There is a lucrative market for acquiring and selling private personal information demographics lifestyle choices spending habits interests etc li ol Over the past few years I ve had dozens of people ask me if I thought they could remove themselves from the watchful eyes of Facebook My answer is always no The problem is that once the information has been collected it will always be stored and associated with you I have therefore devised a slightly different method for dealing with this problem Rather than trying to hide information from Facebook it may be possible simply to overwhelm it with too much information While this may sound counter intuitive there is a well known mathematical theorem that may in fact validate the idea Imagine if you were asked to look inside of a friend s pantry or cupboard for 30 seconds and then to make a guess about their general diet For most people this would be a pretty simple exercise and the results would probably be very accurate But now imagine that when you peered inside their pantry was magically the size of an entire grocery store and contained just as many products Other than the fact that they weren t starving what could you really report about this friend s diet The amount of variation available would make the analysis very difficult This is the basic idea strong Target and Teenage Pregnancy strong photo 261555 740 200 right photo Back in February of this year Forbes released an article detailing how a href http www forbes com sites kashmirhill 2012 02 16 how target figured out a teen girl was pregnant before her father did Target successfully determined that a teenage girl was pregnant a before her father was able to The girl had received coupons in the mail for a host of maternity items This prompted her father to call Target s customer service department and complain how it was inappropriate to send a teenage girl such material Target was quick to apologize but a few days later the father actually wound up apologizing to Target noting that his daughter was indeed pregnant The question is how could Target possibly have known this Like most big box stores Target tracks everything that their customers purchase According to the article customers are assigned a em guest ID number tied to their credit card name or email address that becomes a bucket that stores a history of everything they ve bought and any demographic information Target has collected from them or bought from other sources em So not only does Target keep a history of what customers buy but they purchase demographic information about these customers from other companies as well Perhaps companies like Facebook They are then able to have programmers and statisticians analyze giant chunks of data and assemble patterns of consumer spending habits In the case of Target the statisticians noticed that women tend to stock up on health supplements in their first trimester and unscented lotions in their second trimester As it turns out they claim to have about 25 products that they use to indicate a pregnancy score the likeliness that a customer is pregnant The article explains that when just four of those products are purchased by the same customer the likeliness of them being pregnant is a whopping 87 It might sound a bit like witchcraft but it s the type powerful of statistical analysis that can be done with such large data pools Imagine the selling power a company like Facebook has when it comes to providing supplemental demographic information to a company like Target Whether or not they em do em sell such information is a matter of their internal business practices but the data they are regularly collecting is priceless This provides them with a continued incentive to collect and store personal data about individuals strong Email Extrapolation strong In 2004 I was working for an email marketing company Naturally we were eager to analyze potential customers any way that we could but often had little more to work with than their email address incidentally these were typically acquired via some pseudo scandalous online promotion I began working independently on an interpretive email address analyzer and after leaving the company had mixed success in marketing the product to other businesses The relevance to this experience is how much can be ascertained just from a single email address never mind the hoards of voluntary information associated with a Facebook profile The basic process would run an email address through a series of filters I had devised Each filter would output how the email address scored against the particular filter For example say we wanted to analyze the gender of a user If the email address reads em susan example com em it s pretty likely it belongs to a female for the obvious reason that Susan is a female s name The program would cross reference a database of names and assign a probable score of the user being female But consider a less obvious address like em steelerj67 example com em A different gender filter would extrapolate the word steeler cross reference a list of sports teams and associate it with the Pittsburgh Steelers It would then score the user as a male albeit with much less certainty than the previous example The logic being that females tend not to associate their email addresses with sports teams There could be dozens of filters applied just to determine the likely gender of the person And of course other filters would perform completely different tasks In this case one would also extrapolate the 67 and interpret it as a birth year Without performing this kind of analysis we just have a customer email address But with this analysis we potentially have a 45 year old male living in Pennsylvania who likes football That s a lot of data to extract from a single address even if it is speculative This type of analysis is certainly not always accurate but it is statistically very relevant and can greatly affect the usefulness of large datasets More importantly when we apply the analysis of these filters to other collected demographic information the results tend to improve very significantly When these methodologies are applied to tens of millions of customer records the aggregate change in revenue can increase tremendously Advertising to a 13 year old female versus a 62 year old man requires a pretty substantial change in advertising content Simply knowing this is invaluable to a company If I was able to successfully extrapolate so much information just from an email address think of how accurate Facebook can be with all of the information users provide them strong id bayesianflooding Bayesian Flooding strong photo 261565 740 300 right A look at Facebook s Advertising system br a href photos download d7fb4231370e3e6b9c545072219c325c Click for Full Size a photo Facebook no doubt uses methods similar to the two described above but they also enjoy the luxury of collecting large amounts of personal data directly from users this is exclusively what their service does In turn they re able to use the information collected to advertise to their users If you ve ever used their advertising system you probably know just how powerful it is The level of granularity and depth one is able to target for advertising purposes is far beyond the scope of Google And yet this powerful advertising model may still suffer from a rather obvious Achilles heel For the time being at least it appears to depend very heavily upon the honesty of its users This is where the experiment I have been working on comes directly into play Over the past several months I have entered a myriad of life events to my Facebook profile using their new Timeline feature Some of those life events are true and some of them are not In my fictitious life I ve explored a dozen different religions had countless injuries and broken bones suffered twice through cancer been married divorced fathered children all around the world and have even fought for numerous foreign militaries This is what I refer to as Bayesian Flooding and to be perfectly honest it s turned out to be a great deal of fun My intent was to coin the term within the same sphere as Bayesian Filtering a common method of filtering junk email by word analysis Of course both terms pay homage to a href http en wikipedia org wiki Thomas_Bayes Thomas Bayes a a mathematician best known for a href http en wikipedia org wiki Bayes 27_theorem Bayes Theorem a photo 261520 740 200 right The basic formula describing Bayes Theorem It depicts the conditional probability of event A given event B has occurred photo Bayes Theorem is a commonly applied mathematical formula used for calculating the conditional probability of some event given that some additional event has occurred or that some additional knowledge has been gained For example if someone told you they had a nice conversation on a train the probability it was a woman they spoke with is 50 If they told you the person they spoke to was going to attend a quilt exhibition it is far more likely than 50 it is a woman a href http en wikipedia org wiki Bayes 27_theorem Introductory_example sup 1 sup a The probability of correctly assuming the gender increases because you have gained more information about the original problem Mathematically speaking you are now considering the probability that the person is a woman em given em that you know the person was attending a quilt exhibition knitting crocheting and quilting are more typically associated as being female hobbies An interesting quirk of Bayes Theorem is that it heavily relies upon sexism racism ageism and every other type of generalization imaginable in order to draw assumptions This is not because it is somehow prejudiced but rather because such categorizations can be shown to be statistically accurate The key is to have accurate statistics about the topic being generalized To borrow from the esteemed Sherlock Holmes You can never foretell what any one man will do but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to This is essentially the backbone of Bayes Theorem When Facebook analyzes my profile and notices that I have participated in a dozen different religions over the past 30 years their engine em should em make the assumption that I am interested in theology and various disciplines of spirituality As a result they re more likely to serve me ads and recommendations within this realm perhaps for spiritual books personal retreats or the like For a sizable majority of people these assumptions and recommendations will be accurate and should result in a better click through rate and ultimately more revenue But the truth is that I m an agnostic atheist and certainly couldn t care less about religious topics It might seem like childish anarchy but there is a legitimate rationale behind wanting to fool the engine As data analysis becomes more and more detailed namely due to our world being digitally cataloged companies are inventing coercive psychological tricks that manipulate consumers into spending more plain and simple The products aren t necessary getting better rather the science of selling the products is Advertisers argue there are benefits to more efficiently targeting customers but I believe these benefits fail to acknowledge the downside consumers face It s simply a matter of knowing far too much about a person while having the singular goal of acquiring their money If consumer manipulation is harmless I would have to strongly question why we condemn psychics for applying similar tricks while at the same time congratulating the business world Beyond psychological manipulation there are also legitimate privacy concerns that need to be taken into consideration much like the case of the pregnant teen If advertisements became completely personalized it would be possible to learn virtually anything about someone just by observing what they were suggested to buy never mind what they actually bought Whether or not a teenager should be made to disclose her pregnancy to her father is a matter for a different debate But I believe it s a pretty unanimous position that Target should not be involved at any level of the discussion There are dozens of very large players in this game at the moment but Facebook and Google are most likely the two best known Even people who may not grasp the complexity of personal data collection probably still suspect they re being cataloged and they re right But an interesting difference with Facebook versus say Google is that I believe their data pool can be distorted without inhibiting one from using their site If Facebook became em the em go to source for private personal information and that information was flawed it would potentially affect all other analysis of the individual as well The theoretical advantage a company like Google has is that it would extremely difficult to apply an idea like Bayesian Flooding to their model with any level of practicality Google s paid advertising is primarily based upon the user s active search query If you enter a false query you ll get answers to questions unimportant to you it would be a futile exercise Conversely and when you actually need to search for something the ad engine would still be just as effective since it runs in real time This is especially true of services like Gmail In order to flood a Gmail account not only would you have to send non sensible emails to contacts with some regularity often referred to in this sense as a href http en wikipedia org wiki Bayesian_poisoning Bayesian Poisoning a but recipients would have to reply in a similar manner Of course the only reason one sends email in the first place is to exchange communication and thus the purpose of the tool would again be lost at least in practical terms By contrast applying Bayesian Flooding to a Facebook profile is quite trivial and in no way inhibits one from still enjoying the many facets of their service The method only disturbs the advertising and recommendation model not the actual tool It is still possible to share photos exchange stories and ideas and comment on posts regardless of any superfluous details that happen to be associated with one s profile What s the real harm if someone on Facebook thinks I spent two years in the Pakistani National Army so long as I can still share photos with them from my recent trip to Canada With the release of their Timeline system anybody is free to add such details regardless of how accurate they are Now that Facebook has decided to become a publicly traded company it seems to me this is a pretty significant detail shareholders are likely to begin questioning It may even be one of the reasons as to why they have recently become so anxious to get people using their email services such services are much more complicated to fool as described via Google above The more people that begin to use Facebook for day to day emailing and chatting the more accurate and valuable each individual dossier becomes strong Results of the Experiment strong photo 261470 740 200 right Some of my current recommendations from the Facebook robot photo Thus far my experiment seems to be producing exactly the results I had hypothesized it would Whatever algorithm s Facebook uses to recommend pages is evidently picking up on my colorful assortment of life changing events This is a promising start for those interested in reducing what they re worth to Facebook as a human commodity Companies are willing to pay for advertisements because ads produce quantitative measurable results If one receives an advertisement that is irrelevant to them the cost of that ad space has been wasted If the cost of advertising outweighs the return on investment companies tend to stop advertising This is an oversimplification of the whole cycle but illustrates the basic premise Of course there are numerous methods Facebook uses to provide recommendations and advertisements to people Some are based on the likes of Facebook friends some are based on COOKIES from other sites and I would imagine that some are even based on internal browsing history So while it may not be possible to manipulate all of the personal information being collected about you the Timeline feature can at least be used to manipulate it to some degree at least per my own experimentation Incidentally I ve also discovered numerous bugs in their system most of them related to dates on the Timeline Although Facebook does not allow you add life events prior to your birth they do permit you to include other people in your life events that occurred before em they em were born I m sure Facebook will eventually fix this but for the time being I suspect it makes their Bayesian analysis that much more inaccurate strong Algorithmic Corrections strong It might be fair to ask if a company like Facebook would be able to adapt to something like Bayesian Flooding The short answer is that yes they most definitely would be able to Data mining companies can analyze all sorts of patterns illustrating how normal people tend to enter personal data Once normal behavior patterns are established it is not particularly difficult to flag outliers Of course what Facebook might do with such outliers requires a bit of speculation At worst they could be banned for intentionally misusing the system However it seems this would be a little short sighted as the user still carries a marketable value perhaps just less of one Instead I suspect they would be flagged to not receive certain kinds of advertisements thus not wasting advertisers money After all the company hosting the ad wants the product to sell as much as the company selling the product does Why else would the advertising dollars continue to pour in If Facebook chose to implement filters to detect this type of Bayesian Flooding people like myself would simply concoct new ways to further interfere with those filters perhaps by adding events at a slower rate or adding events more central to my actual life Facebook would then try to correct those methods and so on This is how technological cat and mouse games get started similar to fighting SPAM or attempting to prevent piracy As a technological rule of thumb every measure invented to curb a certain practice eventually has a counter measure to circumvent it But having written that there is an upside to those who take to Bayesian Flooding I very sincerely doubt enough people will be interested in the idea to create a blip on Facebook s radar much less change anything That probably means those wishing to partake would find success in the idea strong Conclusion strong While I ll definitely keep experimenting with their system it does seem for the time being that people can directly affect what advertisements they receive simply by flooding their profile The new Facebook Timeline feature makes this simple and even fun And though the idea may appear petty to some people those of us wishing to protect our privacy and avoid being cataloged by corporate America may find it beneficial to our cause If you have any comments or thoughts on this process please feel free to a href contact contact me a as always

Understanding Soi Cowboy Before leaving for Thailand I had told a number of my friends that I would not just look into the sex industry but rather stare intently into it and see what it s actually all about I did just that I m not especially interested in it myself from a customer point of view but there is a certain mystique and fascination around how legalized prostitution works around the world I should also note that prostitution in Thailand is better categorized as not illegal rather than legal There are a host of laws that could be used to stop it from happening but the powers that be turn a blind eye to this I also want to acknowledge up front that I fully comprehend that at least some portion of the sex industry in Thailand fuels sex trafficking something I and I assume most any decent person is fervently opposed to for rather obvious reasons All told my friend and I visited six of the clubs in the Soi Cowboy area Here s some notes from the experience Firstly when you arrive at Soi Cowboy it will probably be a lot smaller than you think it is When I had seen pictures of it over the years I thought the iconic neon signs that I was seeing were the entrance to it or something like that As it turns out the street is probably only a few hundred meters long and there are maybe 20 clubs in total I m ballparking but thereabout anyways photo 633356 641658 0 center The iconic photo view of Soi Cowboy from just outside of the main street photo br style clear both The first club that we entered was Baccara This club sits on the far east end of the block and has a reputation for being one of the nicer clubs there Having been to strip clubs all over the United States the South Pacific South America and Mexico I will say that the experience here was pretty crazy and a little overwhelming The club is very small There are booths about 3 seats deep around the entirety of it with a small portion kept for the bar There is a single stage that sits in the middle of the room with a handful of poles for the girls to hang on to Above them is a glass ceiling with ladies dancing on the 2nd floor so yes you can see right up into them The most shocking difference from an American point of view is just the sheer number of women that are on stage and how it works Put very bluntly it is much more literally like a meat market than you ve likely ever heard that term used before What I mean is that at any other club I ve ever been to a single stage will be occupied by maybe two to three girls at once often times a single stage is just a single girl Not here At Baccara as with most of the clubs on the strip there were about 30 to 40 young Thai women on the stage at a time They re all wearing what is essentially a skimpy bathing bikini bathing suit but none of them on the main stage are naked not even topless There were three different groups of these women One group wore an orange outfit another wore a black outfit and the third group the upstairs group wore a kind of schoolgirl dress no doubt fulfilling some creepy old guy fantasies there The schoolgirl dressed girls were on the second floor They would be half assed dancing around on the glass floor ceiling from our point of view and after set intervals would become topless and then ultimately naked After enough time had elapsed they would go back to being dressed and then start the process over again This could be an incorrect assessment but we ultimately decided that these were the freshmen of the group Not necessarily the youngest in fact most likely not the youngest but the newer girls or less marketable girls who actually did have to get naked to keep their job They essentially just kept the whole thing stimulating Now onto the other two groups The orange and black teams would come out on stage only with their fellow teammates Thirty or so girls would march off the stage and thirty or so new girls would come back on But here s where it gets crazy they don t do anything They don t dance They don t interact with the customers hardly anyways They literally just stand on the stage and show off what they have To the meat market comment each one of them literally has a number pinned to their chest The process is as follows You see a girl that you like and so you tell the madam of the house one woman who is essentially just keeping tabs on everything in a pimp like fashion that you like number 224 This is the buying a drink phase The madam will summon girl 224 to come and sit with you and you immediately are expected to purchase her a drink Best we would tell the drink would just be a glass of cola but you re still paying about 300 baht for it about 9 00 USD You talk with the girl make sure you like her and then one of two things happens Either option one is that either you don t really like her after all or you weren t really planning to do anything with her in the first place this was our category and so after her drink is done she thanks you and goes back to the herd Or option two is that you pay for her The madam will present you with a price sheet that essentially dictates how much you would have to pay to take her back to your hotel either for an hour or for the evening The prices were about 3 000 baht about 91 USD for the hourly service or about double that for the entire evening That s it So this kind of club of which there are several of in Soi Cowboy aren t really strip clubs at all at least not in the sense that Americans think of them They are literal brothels where you are just looking at a live menu and deciding what who to pay for Again the freshman team dancing naked upstairs keeps the strip club feel alive but that s definitely not the intent of them After we left Baccara we stopped by another well known club called Crazy House It had the same methodology as Baccara It was definitely a wilder vibe and these girls would at least interact with people a little bit more on the stage I wound up slipping a few 20 baht notes about 0 60 USD into leg garters they were wearing Eventually a pair of them came and sat with me for a bit We actually had a really fun time drinking and trying to communicate in broken English and Thai but that was the extent of it Like Baccara this one also had the glass ceiling although some of the girls on the main stage would actually strip Some went topless while others were fully nude As a somewhat sad interjection it became pretty obvious which of the girls were new You could tell rather clearly that they were being told to strip down but were then lightly covering themselves with their hands and things of this nature It was subtle but easy to spot if you were looking for it The Cowboy2 Bar and Spice Girls were mostly the same kind of setup Each one of them had their own little twist to how they ran the operation but the process was the same The girls all had numbers pinned to them you selected one bought her a drink were presented with a list of payment options and then you d either send her back to the herd or leave with her There were two bars that had a very different methodology to them Afterskool Bar and Toy Bar were an entirely different beast These clubs were narrow in their design with the bar taking up one entire wall and the stage taking up the other entire bar You d essentially sit between these two elements There would only be a few girls on the stage at one time and they were stripping in the sense that you would see in America Except that they re doing a lot more than that photo 633468 641658 0 center Some of the dancers from the Afterskool Bar The one posing sat and chatted with me for awhile photo br style clear both photo 633387 641658 0 center The same girl from Afterskool whose name I unfortunately forget now photo br style clear both These girls were entirely blatant about what the purpose of your visit was There was no menu presented there was no process informal or otherwise for how the interaction happened If a girl noticed that you were looking at her long enough or perhaps if she just liked the cut of your jib she would come and talk to you Toy Bar was considerably more direct about it but they would tell you outright what they could do and would negotiate prices directly with you I suspect that the varied it based on how much they thought you could afford what you looked like and frankly just how they felt at any given moment These girls were not drinking cola but rather were getting pretty fucked up I d imagine a number of them were doing drugs but I didn t see any of this directly Cutting right to the chase a hand job in the bar would cost anywhere from 500 to 700 baht 15 to 21 USD respectively whereas a blowjob would cost anywhere from 1000 to 1500 baht 30 to 45 USD respectively You could certainly pay to take them home as well and I d imagine the prices were a little cheaper than the meat market bars but the general idea was that they would just take you somewhere in the club and you d get your time with them Again I have been to a lot of strip clubs over the years for countless different reasons ranging from bachelor parties to friends wanting to go to girlfriends wanting to see what they re all about to everywhere else in between In all of those experiences though I ve never had a woman directly proposition me for anything other than a dance To be clear you re not asked something like hey baby what are you looking for but rather shown explicit gestures of exactly what you can get Even in the Mexican border towns they re not quite that brazen It s a weird experience While I ultimately support prostitution namely as I don t think somebody should be told they cannot sell their own body I d imagine that there is an entire underbelly of creepy old men who are regular visitors to these bars many likely provide them with regular services photo 633305 641658 0 center I was highly entertained by this sign in the street photo br style clear both All in all Soi Cowboy was a ton of fun and I would highly recommend anybody checking it out but just keep in mind that it s not like going to an American strip club but rather is like entering a brothel Also bear in mind that while sex tourism is entirely fine there are certainly people there who have been trafficked This is an awful thing and so it s hard to say whether you should support the business in any way Regardless there s a world of difference between American and Thai strip clubs

Using C Channels to Construct a Steel and Cedar Fence strong style font size 16px Introduction strong This is a new method that I came up with for building a Steel and Cedar fence using stainless steel C Channels in place of other methods like angle iron photo 1007020 1162992 0 center A section of the fence shortly after completion photo One of the difficulties of building a steel and cedar fence is the process of physically adhering the cedar pickets to the steel itself While this might not be immediately obvious at first the mechanics behind it actually create quite a lot of work for anybody building this type of fence The typical method used is to weld angle iron pieces to the vertical posts They are positioned on the inner tracts of each section and allow various types of backing boards to be screwed onto them These backing boards can then be used to affix the cedar planks I came up with a new method for accomplishing this same process by using Stainless Steel C Channels The channels allow for standard pressure treated 1x4s to be slid into the channel slots These are then used to affix the cedar just as in the standard method Here s a detailed video of how I made this work Full textual instructions can be found below that iframe width 521 height 391 src https www youtube com embed kH8RfF6ag2k frameborder 0 allowfullscreen iframe strong style font size 16px Acquiring C Channels strong Once I came up with a proof of concept for the work the first challenge was just acquiring all of the C Channels I found what I needed at Home Depot but I thought surely my local metal distributor would have these at a better price and quite possibly in longer segments It turns out that I was mistaken My local steel company sold C Channels too but unfortunately they were quite different from what I actually needed If you look at the two of them side by side you can see that one of them has angled edges The reason for this is how they manufacturer them photo 1007908 1163037 0 center Two different types of C Channels one with straight walls that I found at Home Depot and one with angled walls that I found at my usual metal distributor photo The C Channel on the right which I m told is called pig iron is actually manufactured in the forge They start with a solid brick of steel and then use a press to carve out the channel The problem is that excess steel has to go somewhere and so it s left behind in the channel That s what forms the angled grooves photo 1008800 1163068 0 left Some of the C Channels I acquired at Home Depot just before cutting them photo By contrast the C Channel on the left is made from an existing piece of flattened stainless steel They use a machine to bend the two sides of it This creates the channel with the straight walls This is an important distinction for the method that I came up with and these types of C Channels are required for the process to work properly Once I had all of the C Channels that I needed I laid out half of them on a ladder next to me and started on the process of preparing them br style clear both strong style font size 16px Jig to Cut the C Channels strong Given that Home Depot only sells the stainless steel C Channels in 36 pieces I needed make literally hundreds of cuts for the 3 1 2 pieces that would be useful on the fence To ensure they were done with relative precision I built a simple jig out of some scrap wood The jig was designed so that the C Channel could be slid into a groove with walls on either side locking it firmly into place The outermost edge had a wall that would stop it from being inserted any farther into the jig In order to get the proper cut the C Channel had to abut this outer wall I left a several inch wide gap in the two side walls The 3 1 2 cutline that I needed was where the gap first started So in other words so long as I cut the C Channel as close to that edge as possible the resulting piece would be sufficient for what I needed with a precision of maybe photo 1006757 1163068 0 center The jig I built for cutting the 36 C Channels into 3 1 2 pieces photo It took about three hours for me to cut all of the pieces that I needed It should be noted that safety equipment is of the utmost importance here In addition to always needing safety gear when working with a grinder and cutting steel the sheer volume of the material being cut produced an unbelievable amount of metal dust and shavings For that reason alone I would strongly advise wearing a breather as well as an apron Metal dust and shavings are incredibly difficult to get out your clothing What s worse is that because so many of our modern conveniences rely on strong magnets your phone for example the tiny shards of metal will get stuck to everything and are very difficult to remove photo 1007008 1163068 0 center A view of the jig I used after cutting hundreds of C Channels photo photo 1007588 1163068 0 center Some of the metal dust that resulted from the massive amounts of cuts made photo photo 1006320 1163068 0 left The Homer work bucket filled with 3 1 2 C Channel pieces photo After each cut I d just toss the 3 1 2 C Channel into a Homer work bucket The bucket eventually became extremely heavy but not so much that I couldn t move it around It provided an easy way to move them to each fence section as we worked on welding them into place br style clear both strong style font size 16px Welding the C Channels strong Welding the C Channels into place wasn t especially difficult but it did require some reasonable welding skills Admittedly they don t require a lot of welding to secure them to the frames but rather can be adhered with just a few well positioned tacks We found that placing a tack on the underbelly of each C Channel as well two tacks on the outer portion of each one worked just fine photo 1006326 1162987 0 left One of the C Channels tacked into place The board in this photo is a standard 1x4 untreated common board This was used as a test but only pressure treated wood was used for the final product photo Assuming each fence section is 8 feet wide you should plan on having 3 pairs of C Channels per fence section One pair on each of the outermost parts of the section and then one pair dead center If you have any sections of fence that exceed 8 feet in width you might consider using 4 pairs of C Channels for such a section In that case use two pairs on the outermost posts of the section and then space two more pairs equally within the section itself Keep in mind that if you do this you ll want to divide the width of the fence section by THREE and not by four The reason is because you need to use the number of gaps required 3 for the math and not the number of channel pairings 4 br style clear both Once you have all of the C Channels welded into place you ll want to paint them For a black fence I d recommend using Rustoleum Black Gloss paint You can use a brush if you prefer but I found the spray was much easier for painting the C Channels given their irregular shape and how small they are Still though this is entirely a preference At this point you ll be ready to start attaching the 1x4 backing boards These should be pressure treated boards and you ll want to make sure that you spend time carefully choosing the boards to ensure minimal warping Horizontal warping is especially problematic with this method given the boards will need to be properly fit between each pair of channels You ll want them to be as straight as possible photo 1007402 1162987 0 center Pallet of pressure treated Yellawood 1x4s at Home Depot photo I found that cutting all of the backing boards was probably the most labor intensive part of the entire job Because of the unusual shape of the C Channels it can be difficult to properly measure the height that you need Ideally you would run the tape measure from the floor of the lower C Channel to the ceiling of the upper C Channel However given that each C Channel is just thick you can simply measure the distance between the two horizontal steel tubes and then subtract from the total required height This is what I found easiest I also tended to err on the longer side of my measurements as I needed to ensure that each backing board was snugly fit into place Consequently I would measure the distance needed and then subtract just under from the measurement before making the cut This would usually result in the board being slightly too long to fit inside of the C Channel pairing I would simply set the bottom part of the 1x4 in the lower channel and then see how close it was to fitting inside of the upper channel Once I could see how much was left to cut I could usually eyeball it from there and make very small adjustments While this took a lot of additional time I wanted to ensure I got the height of the 1x4 as perfectly fit as I could This would occasionally mean I had to make 3 or 4 cuts on the same piece of wood but I think the results speak for themselves in terms of the precision that I ended up with photo 1008192 1162987 0 center A section of the fence with three backing boards and a single cedar picket held onto the bottom This was still testing the proof of concept photo I should also note that just because the left side of your fence section measures some height does not mean that the right side will have an equal height While you should have certainly used a level when installing the horizontal tubing it s very possible that there will still be a slight angle to the tube resulting in one side being slightly higher or lower than the other While this isn t generally perceptible to the eye provided you indeed used a level it makes a significant difference fitting the 1x4s given the precision required to slide them into the channels The backing boards should fit perfectly into place between each pair of the C Channels While you don t want them to be loose in any way you also shouldn t require a great deal of force to knock them into place I found that they worked best when they required a gently tapping from my hand or a mallet But that s basically it Once all of the backing boards are in place you can proceed with installing the cedar pickets as you normally would Cut them to width and then screw them into the backing boards photo 1007134 1162988 0 center Various sections of the fence with the backing boards exposed photo br style clear both strong style font size 16px Attach the Cedar Pickets strong Assuming that you re using 1x6 cedar pickets and paired with the 1x4s this means that the total amount of usable wood depth should be 1 I used Spax 8 1 decking screws for the job This ensured that none of them would penetrate the 1 of depth The brand is generally very well received for these kinds of jobs photo 1006295 1162988 0 center The boxes of Spax screws required to affix all of the cedar pickets photo If you have any questions about how to apply this method please feel free to contact me photo 1008052 1162988 0 center Working on cutting and affixing the cedar pickets to one side of the fence photo photo 1007281 1162988 0 center Me after getting the first few sections of fencing finished after weeks of hard work photo

The Stingray After just having moved to Austin Texas to begin college at the University of Texas I spent the first summer of my time away from home in a provisional program It was essentially a summer program for those who were on the cusp of admittance but still needed to prove to the university that the individual was not entirely without merit and should indeed be admitted Basically my high school grades were good but not quite good enough to just get me into this huge public university So I attended Fortunately I fooled the school In the rather typical fashion I tended to treat college until I eventually pursued something I really enjoyed I did just enough to get by This is an irrelevant detail to the story of The Stingray other than the fact that I wound up starting college about three months before the majority of my friends and peers did and as a consequence had to fill my time with the few friends I had there Perhaps also worth noting is that until Austin Texas became a significant city on the US stage most of the city was shut down over the summer time as the reduced student population just didn t create the same demand for entertainment So the opportunities of finding activities in the evening were much more limited than they would eventually become in Austin I had been assigned a random dorm roommate named Geoff Smith Like me he was from Houston albeit not particularly close to where I grew up I also acquired a pseudo roommate who I had attended high school with named Donlee Cone Smith Despite the shared last name there was no relation between them If you met the two of them that would be immediately obvious Whereas Donelee was an athletic socially normal country raised kind of guy Geoff was a tall lanky quirky socially awkward person He was very friendly but ever so different from both Donlee and myself Donlee had been placed in single bedroom sparsely populated dorm Needless to say he was often very bored and used to stay over at our place a lot hence the pseudo roommate He would d hang out with me for most of the day attend shared classes when we did and then often sleep on our floor And although this was back in the day of Intel 486 chips and just barely Pentium branded processors I had a pretty solid rig that my dad had bought for me for college So I think Donlee appreciated the ability to not only have people to hang out with but also a way to play computer games too Incidentally our respective girlfriends were good friends and both were still living in Houston Although I d been to a strip club in Houston with my friends Daniel Putt and Roger Graham before infamously known as the PPP this was the first strip club that I had opted to venture out to in Austin though it would not be the last The strip clubs made a habit of littering the cars and door knobs around campus with coupons for their respective clubs All of the college material we were given upon arrival to school had equivalent coupons and ads in them too Who knew that college kids were such big patrons of strip clubs Geoff had never been to a strip club before and so of course Donlee and I were delighted in giving him that first experience As we walked inside of the club our first bit of awkwardness was using a coupon Yes you can actually use coupons at strip clubs but it surely has a stigma attached to it So with our discounted entry fee we we re already feeling pretty lost The PPP of Houston was been a pretty small club It was notorious for hiring pretty unattractive dancers often ones who were older or even pregnant not that there is anything wrong with that but it s not exactly what one tends to think of when imagining a strip club By stark contrast The Show Palace in Austin was a huge venue with three different stages and surprisingly very attractive dancers Like the PPP it was also an all nude club After a minute or two of exploring the place we awkwardly found a little area around one of the side stages We proceeded to sit down and watch the various shows going on all around us At this time in Texas history it was extremely easy to get into a club with even the worst of fake IDs That all changed around the year 2000 but this was still the late 90s The club itself only required you to be 18 years old to enter but you also couldn t drink if you were under 21 The Show Palace was the kind of strip club that advertised BYOB This just means that you could bring your own beer and alcohol into the club and then pay for mixers like coke sprite lime juice etc They weren t entirely uncommon and typically had the distinction of being all nude clubs The ones that sold liquor tended just to be topless clubs I was told it had something to do with insurance but who really knows Though none of us had fake IDs it didn t take long before some older lonely patron starting chatting us up He was probably in his 30s but when you re just 18 years old that seems pretty ancient In any event he invited us over to his area and offered all of us some drinks Geoff didn t drink but Donlee and I were more than happy to partake Naturally we wound up talking with this guy for awhile As we were all getting along he eventually asked if we wanted one of the girls to give us a private dance Before we could really even answer him he had his hand in the air and called upon one of the girls he knew by name to come over He paid her the requisite 20 and asked her to give these young men a good show He told us that her name was Stingray As strippers often do she started talking to us about her life her boyfriend how long she s been working and other mundane and trivial details like that It s always a little weird when a woman who has just been paid 20 to dance naked in front of you starts sharing her life story but again at 18 years old it seems like you should just listen And so we did At some point we asked her why she was called Stingray She didn t immediately answer but it obviously piqued some idea in her mind She wasn t giving any of us a traditional lap dance but rather just using one of the cocktail tables and a chair to dance privately for the three of us while this older gentleman just looked on A short while later she started telling us the kinds of sexual activities that she was into Namely things to do with pain submission etc She started telling us how she loved using candle wax as part of her sexual experiences with her boyfriend She asked us if we wanted to see it and so of course we eagerly nodded approval She proceeded to put one of her legs up on the cocktail table the other planted firmly on the ground Her legs were open rather wide at this point as she grabbed one of the candle jars from the table top next to her It was lit and had a fair bit of melted wax sloshing around the top of the jar She proceeded to lean back slightly using her left hand to balance on the chair while her right hand handled the candle jar She ever so gently started pouring the candle wax all over her lady parts either genuinely or pretending to moan in a kind of orgasmic ecstasy as she did this Naturally this was well beyond any expectations that we had If you re familiar with the female anatomy then it may have already jumped out at you but if not I ll finish the story After another short while the wax had stopped dripping and began to firm She set the candle jar back on the table and carefully proceeded to remove the now hardened wax from her body It came out perfectly in tact a small drip even remained attached to the bulk of it It had formed from drip running down her bare leg She proceeded to set this wax mold on my knee looked at us and said that s why they call me Stingray If I hadn t seen it myself then I wouldn t have believed it were possible But there on my 18 year old knee was a perfect mold of this stripper s vagina complete with that tail from the wax that had dripped down her leg And sure as she said it it looked exactly like a Stingray Perhaps more of a manta ray if you want to get really technical with it but when you re 18 years old are a bit out of your element and strippers are making wax molds of their female parts specifically for you it s just not the right time to get technical So Stingray it was

American Healthcare Part VI Practical Healthcare Proposals After decades of poorly crafted medical policies and between all of the civil discontent that has resulted from the passing of the healthcare bill it seems reasonable to doubt whether the United States is capable of having a balanced equitable and practical healthcare system that all can agree upon Achieving this type of balance presents a difficult puzzle for lawmakers At the heart of the best working systems are simplicity practicality and accountability none of which lawmakers appear to have any interest in discussing much less attempting to legislate Before any other changes are adopted I would encourage all Americans to urge members of Congress to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 It is important to note however that this should not be done to upset the left or appease the right It should be done because it was poorly crafted legislation Constitutionally speaking if Congress intends to create and enforce any type of federal healthcare mandate an amendment should be properly made to the Constitution ratified by the states and executed just as the process has required for over two hundred years Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have any constitutional authority simply to dictate such wide stretching federal legislation Even beyond the Constitution it should be common sense that the legal empowerment of multinational corporations with a guaranteed marketplace will among many other things only help to ensure the expansion of lobbyists and special interest groups This is sure to result in nothing but higher healthcare costs poorer service and an even less manageable bureaucracy How can Americans possibly expect any level of impartiality between the various branches of healthcare while they are legally joined as one But it is not enough just to repeal the law In parallel to the time it would take Congress to remove the legislation there are several very simple and practical improvements that could be debated and readied for implementation across the country Individuals have an incredible ability to control the direction of healthcare through the power of our capitalist market While politicians might continue to remind us of how they know best in the matter immediate and positive change requires nothing more than for us to be responsible and accountable and to hold others to these same standards But everybody must do his or her part First and above anything else it is important for our society to start an open dialogue on the differences between healthcare and health insurance One of the dangers that this lack of understanding has wrought on society is that it removes the base principles of calculated risk from public discussion and debate Politicians both Democrats and Republicans have long since capitalized on this and as of 2009 made the modern healthcare debate almost exclusively about insurance Instead of discussing some base expectation or level of healthcare as would perhaps be a progressive step for our society they have instead debated whether or not people should be legally required to hold private health insurance This has been paired with the notion that health insurance should be responsible for every single treatment we ever receive regardless of how routine it may be This whole idea is absurd in almost every respect and provides insurance companies with enormous powers and profits I would suggest to all Americans particularly those who are self insured that they closely examine the true costs of their insurance package Consider the monthly cost the deductible any copayments and any percentage of care they are still responsible for beyond the insurance coverage this can often be 20 or more Compare that to what yearly medical costs have traditionally been and many people may be surprised to learn how much they are actually spending just to visit the doctor a few times a year As an alternative to a comprehensive health insurance plan consider combining a catastrophic plan with a health savings account typically called an HSA Catastrophic medical insurance plans often come with relatively high deductibles that are neither appropriate nor practical for routine healthcare They do however more appropriately embrace the fundamental idea of how insurance is mathematically calculated and is designed to function Catastrophic plans are specifically intended to treat medical emergencies and more severe healthcare needs as they arise Health savings accounts work very similarly to retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401Ks are available to anybody and allow individuals to make yearly tax deductible contributions of up to 3 050 as of 2010 That is about the same amount of money one might expect to spend annually on a premium health insurance policy Moreover the money within the HSA can even be invested just like most retirement accounts allow for But one of the key benefits to an HSA is that it provides the individual with the ability to manage and offset his or her own financial risk In other words if the individual happens to not require medical care over a given period of time the money they would have otherwise spent on insurance is theirs to keep This can significantly cut back on needless monthly expenditures and help individuals to save money When the individual needs to pay for a medical expense the money comes directly out of the HSA provided that the medical expense qualifies as most do Ironically under the new healthcare law over the counter medications no longer qualify for this program without a doctor s prescription Why would the bill remove medical tax exemptions if its very purpose is to make healthcare more affordable Of course on the opposite end of the health insurance spectrum many people enjoy absolutely wonderful benefits at a very low monthly rate through a company program Although I am certainly in favor of individuals receiving these types of benefits it is important to understand that this does not change the underlying cost of the insurance package In these cases the costs are simply defrayed by the company as part of an employee perk If you are one of the millions that enjoy these top shelf plans at a low monthly rate take a moment to ask your human resources director what your monthly rate actually costs the company Most people will be shocked to learn how much money is spent on them annually regardless of whether or not they even use the coverage These benefits might seem free to us but the company is passing along the costs to their employees one way or another be it through lower salaries fewer stock options or various other cost cutting measures This is also one of the reasons that companies are becoming increasingly inclined to hire contract workers instead of permanent employees the costs associated with acquiring new employees is simply getting too expensive Although individuals can take it upon themselves to more responsibly manage their own healthcare coverage government does need to play a role in helping to ensure sufficient facilities exist A practical Congressional measure would be for the federal government to provide incentives as opposed to mandates for cities and states to ensure the 24 hour operation of minor care centers These centers could operate as stand alone facilities or to be directly connected with local hospitals Much like my personal experience with the motorcycle accident the twenty fold cost differential was a result of the hospital preparing to admit me into a full trauma room Whether one has been seriously injured or merely nicked their finger with a kitchen knife many hospitals will admit the patient to a facility capable of providing the same high level of care Of course hospitals also come a premium rate Any trained medical professional should be able to judge within reason what type of medical care a patient is in need of Opponents of that idea will argue that the decision can be ethically wrong and could potentially jeopardize the care of a patient But this counter argument is essentially the same thing as suggesting everybody should be entitled to the best medical care possible all of the time regardless of the circumstance it ignores certain boundaries and practicalities that the real world is forced to operate within Moreover in all medical cases doctors are constantly required to take calculated risks for the well being of their patients They use the information that they have gathered to make the most effective medical judgments possible Why should this be any different with respect to the type of facility a patient is admitted to It is also worth considering how in the absence of this system insurance companies can more easily assert their grip on medical costs In reality when the need for medical care arises people rarely have the convenience of shopping around for a better deal they are likely in need of immediate care Provided the patient is insured neither the hospital nor the insurance company has much incentive to try and keep costs low Another necessary component for establishing sensible healthcare policies is to remove the financial abstractions from within the medical marketplace It is important to understand that those needing medical attention are customers however unfortunate their circumstances may be As customers they will undoubtedly receive a bill for any treatments they receive I would strongly advocate the government mandating that doctors and hospitals be required to provide all costs up front Although I generally reject mandates on principle this type of mandate in no way affects the private dealings of the market it simply provides the consumer with information that they are already legally entitled to be provided I have heard it argued primarily by those in the medical field that it is simply too difficult to know what medical attention will cost before seeing a doctor and therefore unreasonable to predict estimated costs up front This is the primary reason why medical costs are typically not disclosed before service However this whole idea is baseless and falls somewhere between arrogance and conspiracy There are few service based industries in the entire world whereby the service provider knows exactly what up front costs will be involved And yet in every one of these industries the business is still expected to provide a cost estimate For example if you consider something as commonplace as having a vehicle diagnosed by a mechanic how could they possibly be expected to know how long it will take or exactly what types of tests they would to run There are simply too many unknowns This is easily solved by basic communication There are certain costs that are provided to the customer up front and the rest are approved as progress is made This is not a difficult system to understand and yet we are made to believe that it is somehow an incalculable operation on the part of most medical facilities Interestingly dentists and veterinarians are able to provide accurate estimates before treatment Aside from it being too difficult another counter argument that will arise is that the medical industry has a unique moral responsibility to their patient The claim is that after all how can anybody put a price on the wellness of a human being That sounds nice but it also tends to blind people from the reality that the medical industry is a business and will put a price on that aforementioned wellness even when the industry attempts to form an argument to the contrary It is therefore only reasonable that they be held to the same consumer business standards that any other industry would be held to This alleged moral responsibility would be a much more reasonable claim if we adopted a healthcare system whereby all costs were fully covered or reimbursed In that case it might not make sense to ever disclose costs to the patient But that is only because they would truly be a patient and not a paying customer Of course that model does not exist within the country nor is it practical for the obvious associated costs Consequently so long as the United States healthcare system continues to operate as a private industry which I anticipate being the case then like all other private industry it should not be exempt from having to provide the customer with the associated costs before they are incurred In the absence of this there is simply no mechanism in place for even the most basic of checks and balances to exist Medical practitioners hospitals and insurance companies are free to manipulate the bill without ever even involving the customer Incidentally however the customer is still the one responsible for this bill Still doctors and other medical professionals do have one very valid reason for arguing why they must provide the most comprehensive medical care to all patients regardless of any costs and that is due to medical malpractice Medical malpractice lawsuits have steadily escalated for years throughout most of the most of the United States and as of 2009 were responsible for over 30 billion in litigation alone As a direct consequence doctors spend tens of thousands and sometimes even hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on insurance policies protecting them against malpractice lawsuits Naturally these costs are indirectly passed onto the patients through more expensive billing and other service cost increases But the problem is not as simple as just paying for the doctor s insurance premiums Because doctors want to avoid being sued in the first place and certainly want to have a defense for when they are it winds up being in their personal interest to run every medical test conceivably possible This often results in patients receiving expensive and unnecessary tests from state of the art medical equipment While some more advanced screenings can undoubtedly detect malignancies that doctors perhaps would not be able to on their own the increased chance of detection is generally insignificant when contrasted with the significantly higher costs that will be billed to insurance In other words a ninety five percent accurate diagnosis at the cost of one dollar is more useful than a ninety eight percent accurate diagnosis at the cost of one hundred dollars Those interested in reducing the quantity and variety of claims arising from medical malpractice are generally said to be seeking tort reform Although the term has been received more attention in Congress over recent years it is not always made entirely clear what tort law is and why the reforming of it could be beneficial Tort law is simply the branch of law within the United States and other common law countries that involves a breach of a civil duty owed to someone else Plaintiffs of such suits are generally seeking some type of monetary damages from the defendant or defendants Each of the sub branches within the scope of tort law has their own criteria that generally must be shown in order to prove a breach When people are said to call for tort reform within the medical industry they are usually implying that the criteria needed to show medical negligence should be modified so that frivolous claims are less likely to occur In 2003 the State of Texas created legislation to reform medical liability laws in an attempt to address the growing problem That same year medical license applications across the state rose from 2 561 to 4 041 an increase of almost 58 This statistic is relevant in illustrating at least one of the direct benefits to having some type of tort reform Unless we assume doctors began migrating to Texas just for the opportunity to practice medicine more carelessly the unprecedented yearly increase shows how negatively our current legal system affects doctors The State of California actually began addressing the problem as early as 1975 by passing the Medical Information Compensation Reform Act otherwise known as MICRA The state s legislation which is very similar to what Texas adopted in 2003 placed a number of fiscal caps on damages from medical malpractice suits Opponents of tort reform argue that increasing the burden of proof for medical negligence or capping compensatory damages may not hold as many medical practitioners properly accountable for negligent acts Statistically speaking this is very likely true Assuming that it were more difficult seek damages or less lucrative for lawyers to pursue them common sense would suggest that there would be less claims filed and consequently more legitimate claims not investigated But this is the type of balancing act that we need to consider very seriously Nobody wants to see truly negligent claims wind up unresolved nor should doctors be protected from the consequences of such incidents But by not amending the very broad definition of negligence that medical practitioners can be sued for we are only further jeopardizing our own healthcare system So long as we continue forcing doctors to hold expensive insurance packages as protection from all too common frivolous suits we can expect patients to continue paying for this through higher costs Medicine is a science and like all other sciences is not perfect in its application It would benefit us as a society to comprehend this and to frown upon those who would seek to exploit minor mishaps for their own financial gain Although it would take the leadership of Congress to actually begin drawing these lines doing so would be to benefit of all society Finally the United States needs more doctors One of the simplest ways to address this problem would be for the government to create an incentive for students to seek a medical degree A program like this would give students a full ride through medical school In exchange they would be required to dedicate at least seven years of professional work to an accredited hospital as a general practitioner Once this time period had expired they would be free to practice medicine however they saw fit This kind of reciprocal arrangement could be structured in any number of ways For example medical facilities could be granted full or even double tax deductions for privately establishing and managing the programs Alternatively debt forgiveness programs could also be put into place Once doctors completed their state obligation their education debt would be forgiven in full This latter type of program could be further administered through bonds thus ensuring it remained solvent However the funds were distributed saturating the market with new waves of doctors would only help to reduce the increasing cost burden of healthcare It would also have the ancillary benefit of not burdening students with an otherwise unmanageable level of debt In the years since I was involved in the motorcycle accident I have had the pleasure of sharing my experience with hundreds of individuals from varying political and economic backgrounds As a result I have heard a wide range of responses to the situation I was in Some have told me that my decision to leave the hospital was foolish that I am not a doctor and should not have presumed to know the extent of my injuries Others have told me that this was a sound decision and that if I was coherent enough to be mindful of the ensuing costs then I was fully capable of determining where and how I should receive medical attention But across the spectrum of responses I have been consistently pleased to hear people express disgust for the situation and commend my effort of sticking to a principle amidst legitimate personal turmoil I suspect that encouraging people to potentially jeopardize their own well being in order to make their point heard is generally frowned upon But how else is a free society able to change its ways if it is unwilling to take action during difficult times Anybody can succeed in favorable times It is how we handle bouts of adversity that define us There are likely hundreds of simple and practical ideas just like those in this section that could be implemented in relatively short periods of time to help strengthen and improve the healthcare of the United States But one thing is for certain so long as the health insurance companies pharmaceutical companies and politicians remain in cahoots the price of healthcare will unquestionably continue to rise Americans should not expect this type of behavior is going to be changed just on good fortune and happenstance nor is the drive to increase profit margins likely to disappear The United States was founded on the idea that people should not have to sit idly by and merely hope for the best They reserve the right at all times to stand up and demand change And when that fails it is the responsibility of every American to take action and to stand up for the collective good of the entire nation The rich must enable the poor the educated must defend the illiterate and those who can lead must speak out for those who cannot If the American people would be willing to stand up for what is right and refuse to participate in systems that so clearly favor corporate and political interests that collective will would be virtually unstoppable This is how the healthcare system of the United States will return to greatness not by playing the victims of special interests and expecting politicians will dictate what is right

Stylish Bluebird House Plans photo 1221615 1223577 0 right One of the completed and installed birdhouses photo My friend s dad found the plans to this a href https www familyhandyman com project build a bluebird house title https www familyhandyman com project build a bluebird house particular birdhouse on a handyman site a There is currently a sizable grass roots effort across the United States to repopulate bluebird populations and these particular birdhouses are specifically designed for doing just that Something about the shape and the opening is attractive to bluebirds over many other species This same friend of mine recently purchased a large piece of property deep in the woods and has been working to attract any number of bird species I thought it would be fun to construct a few birdhouses for her property but didn t really have a starting point So I took these plans and made a number of fancy modifications to them just to make them much more aesthetically pleasing and hopefully much more durable in the elements The birdhouses are designed with a swivel door so that they can be easily opened and cleaned from time to time While it s not entirely necessary to include that functionality they came out very nicely and the mechanics work well strong Materials Needed strong table tr td strong Qty strong td td strong Item strong td td strong Purchase br Price strong td td strong Birdhouses br Per Item strong td td strong Material br Cost strong td tr tr td 1 td td a href https www homedepot com p 2 in x 4 in x 8 ft 2 Ground Contact Pressure Treated Lumber 106147 206970948 2x4 pressure treated a td td 6 88 td td 2 td td 3 44 td tr tr td 1 td td a href https www homedepot com b Lumber Composites Boards Planks Panels Appearance Boards Softwood Boards Common Boards 1x12 N 5yc1vZ1z18gp1Z1z1a6ed 1x12 Pine Common Board a td td 27 36 td td 2 td td 13 68 td tr tr td 1 td td a href https www homedepot com p Everbilt 3 16 in x 12 in Cold Rolled Plain Round Rod 800407 204325644 Everbilt 3 16 steel dowel rod a td td 2 11 td td 6 td td 0 35 td tr tr td 5 pack td td a href https www amazon com dp B00BLC26SA psc 1 ref ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details Schlage interior bathroom key a td td 4 99 td td 5 td td 1 00 td tr tr td 50 pack td td a href https www amazon com dp B09BQ3GDYH psc 1 ref ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details Uenhoy 5 8 diameter plastic bushing 50 pack a td td 8 99 td td 12 5 td td 0 72 td tr tr td 1 box td td a href https www amazon com GRK 96060 2 inch HandyPak Finish dp B07Z5BNGX4 2 GRK 8 White Finishing Screws a td td 16 99 td td 8 td td 2 12 td tr tr td 1 box td td a href https www homedepot com p SPAX 8 x 1 1 4 in T Star Plus Flat Undercut Interior Exterior HCR X Multi Purpose Screw 230 Box 4191670400324 315173629 Spax 8 1 25 multi purpose screws a td td 13 98 td td 16 td td 0 87 td tr tr td 1 box td td a href https www homedepot com p SPAX 10 x 3 in T Star Plus Drive Flat Head Partial Thread Yellow Zinc Screw 16 per Box 4191020500752 315515211 Spax 10 3 exterior screws x3 a td td 4 67 td td 5 td td 0 93 td tr tr td 1 box td td a href https www lowes com pd SPAX 8 x 3 4 in SPAX Pan Head Unidrive Zinc Coated Screw 35CT 5001700963 Spax 8 3 4 multi purpose construction screws x3 a td td 2 78 td td 12 td td 0 23 td tr tr td 1 box td td a href https www homedepot com p Everbilt 17 x 3 4 in Copper Plated Weather Strip Nails 50 Piece 801604 204274044 17 3 4 weatherstrip copper nails a td td 2 10 td td 3 td td 0 70 td tr tr td 1 pack td td a href https www homedepot com p Everbilt 4 x 5 8 in Phillips Round Head Brass Wood Screw 4 Pack 809991 204787347 Everbilt Brass 4 5 8 Wood Screws a td td 1 28 td td 4 td td 0 32 td tr tr td 1 roll td td a href https www hobbylobby com Beads Jewelry Bead Stringing Chains Chains Chain Spool 5 5mm p 155889 Rolo 5 5mm Brass Chain a td td 15 99 td td 12 td td 1 33 td tr tr td 1 sheet td td a href https www homedepot com p Everbilt 13 in x 18 in 26 Gauge Galvanized Metal Sheet 801527 204225788 Zinc Sheet Metal 26 gauge 18 x 12 a td td 6 83 td td 2 td td 3 42 td tr tr td 1 td td a href https www homedepot com p TRIMFINITY 11 16 in x 11 16 in x 96 in Polystyrene White Outside Corner Moulding 85044 206822154 White polystyrene molding 11 16 x 11 16 x 96 a td td 5 36 td td 2 td td 2 68 td tr tr td 1 box td td a href https www homedepot com p Everbilt 18 x 5 8 in Stainless Wire Nails 1 oz per pack 802694 204281730 18 gauge 5 8 stainless wire brads a td td 2 10 td td 8 td td 0 26 td tr tr td 1 can td td a href https www homedepot com p BEHR PREMIUM PLUS 8 oz Ultra Pure White Satin Interior Exterior Paint Primer Color Sample B370016 307332424 Colored exterior sample paint a td td 4 98 td td 2 td td 2 49 td tr tr td 1 can td td a href https www homedepot com p BEHR PREMIUM PLUS 8 oz Ultra Pure White Satin Interior Exterior Paint Primer Color Sample B370016 307332424 White exterior paint a td td 4 98 td td 16 td td 0 31 td tr tr td 2 td td a href https www homedepot com p 2 in Chiseled Foam Paint Brush 8500 2 100671926 2 foam paintbrush a td td 0 98 td td 1 td td 0 98 td tr tr td 1 roll td td a href https www homedepot com p 3M ScotchBlue 1 88 in x 60 yds Original Multi Surface Painter s Tape 2090 48CP 100550611 Painter s Tape a td td 7 48 td td 50 td td 0 15 td tr tr td 1 can td td a href https www homedepot com p Rust Oleum Painter s Touch 2X 12 oz Semi Gloss Black General Purpose Spray Paint 334097 307244961 Rustoleum Semi gloss black spray paint a td td 4 98 td td 8 td td 0 62 td tr tr td 1 td td a href https www lowes com pd Simpson Strong Tie Wood to Wood Tie Plate 3379782 5 zinc plated 20 gauge tie plate a td td 0 70 td td 1 td td 0 70 td tr table strong Tools Required strong ul li Miter saw ideally with fine tooth sawblade li li Jig saw with wood and metal saws li li Drill li li Various drill bits li li 60 grit sandpaper li li 400 grit sandpaper li li 5 8 hole saw or paddle bit li li Drill press li li Wood clamps li ul strong Cutting out the Pieces strong I won t go into all of the details on how to cut the dimensions of the birdhouse namely as they re all available in some detail on the original website but would instead just note that the project is probably easiest with a jigsaw You can configure a table saw to do the cuts but I found it much easier just to use the jigsaw and then handle any straightening during the sanding process I should note that this is also a perfect project for all of the scrap wood that you might have lying around While the birdhouses are larger than any others I ve built in the past they still don t require all that much material There are just three sides and a roof the entire back and separating pieces inside of the birdhouse are all constructed from a single 2x4 After you finish cutting out the pieces described in the plans you should have 7 unique cuts of wood two sides a front door without the door hole a roof the top 2x4 the midpoint 2x4 and the birdhouse stem 2x4 photo 1216420 1213140 0 center The various pieces of wood for a single birdhouse after making all of the required cuts photo photo 1216444 1213140 0 center A collection the assembled birdhouses photo strong Birdhouse Assembly strong The assembly of birdhouse should be pretty straightforward to anybody even nominally capable of doing craft construction projects The original plans used nails for the construction but I thought it would be nicer to use GRK finishing screws These are extremely thin screws and have no kind of visible head on them This makes them ideal for countersinking which is of course why they re used for finishing With a little dab of extra paint over the holes the birdhouse will appear as if it has been glued together Incidentally you can use wood glue for the entire process but there s really no advantage and then have to wait for it to dry If the goal is merely to hide the screws then either finishing or cabinet screws should do the trick Either way it s just a birdhouse so there s really no wrong way photo 1211645 1213140 0 right A rough version of what the door hole looks like after being cut This one got a little scraped up but it still works just fine photo strong Cutting the Front Door Hole strong I tried cutting the door hole using a variety of methods on my drill press but the bottom line is that it s just very difficult to use a boring bit for overlapping holes Not to mention you d still need to trim the edges of the hole slightly to get the ovular shape With that in mind I found it best just to use a jigsaw If you re going to be making several of these birdhouses at once a I did then it would probably be easiest to create some kind of template on paper first This way you can just set the paper atop the door and use a punch or pin to trace out the door hole Whatever method you use the jigsaw will work best for the cut itself The original plans suggest scraping up the inside of the hole so that the birds have something to grip onto when entering the birdhouse So don t worry about the hole not being perfectly smooth This is actually to the advantage of the final product strong Painting the Birdhouse strong Painting the birdhouse is a pretty simple and fun process I found it easiest to use foam brushes They re cheap effective and more than large enough for expedient painting I wound up applying 4 or 5 coats to these birdhouses and sanded them with a high grit paper to give them a smooth looking surface Keep in mind that the first two coats are going to absorb pretty heavily into the wood so you re really just create a base layer You can apply a primer first if you want to but I didn t think it was necessary to do this since it was just as easy to add additional coats Try not to get any paint on the inside of the birdhouse itself I used some paper towels and tape to prevent this from happening but you can also just be careful It s likely that a little bit of paint will get inside of the door hole opening but this can just be sanded out later The airholes require slightly more attention as the plastic bushings won t properly fit if there is a buildup of paint inside of them photo 1209755 1213140 0 center Three of the birdhouses drying in the sun before the next coat photo photo 1209840 1213140 0 center Continuing to add coats of paint to the birdhouses photo photo 1211200 1213140 0 right Playing with one of the airhole bushings photo strong Adding the Airhole Bushings strong Once all of the painting is completed you can finally install the plastic airhole bushings These certainly aren t necessary but add a really nice flair to the final product They re also useful in preventing the airholes from getting warped and rotting out in any kind of way You may need to clean up the inside of the holes ever so slightly I just used a small piece of 60 grit sandpaper to smooth them out The 5 8 bushings should fit perfectly into the 5 8 holes you drilled They re a light plastic so be sure to use a gentle mallet if you encounter any resistance they will definitely break if you hit them too hard strong Cutting the Trim Pieces strong I m not going to lie this part is a real pain in the ass It will absolutely require some kind of miter saw and ideally one with a high tooth sharp blade given you ll be cutting polystyrene There s really no good way to join the two pieces along the front perfectly together at the bottom corners but you can give the illusion of this with some careful cuts photo 1209766 1213140 0 right Testing one of the trim pieces against the front edge of a birdhouse photo Since the birdhouse has been cut using 63 degree and 27 degree angles you ll want to set the miter saw for 27 degrees It s probably going to take a little playing with it to see which direction the molding has to be cut I found it easiest to cut a piece about 20 long place it along the front edge it s going to be affixed to and then use a pencil to draw the angled direction of cut The front molding will need to hang down slightly lower than the birdhouse walls so that it can be joined to the base molding I won t go into textual details on how to accomplish this but if you look closely at the picture provided you should be able to recreate the process To keep myself humble I should note that I went through quite a few pieces before I finally settled on a cutting pattern that worked for my tastes strong Attaching the Trim Pieces strong Attaching the trim pieces is actually a pretty fun step I decided to go with the copper nails for durability in the elements but also because I happened to like the aesthetic of making them visible along the edges I used my nail gun and air compressor for the first version but found it difficult to purchase 3 4 brad nails at my local store After experimenting with a few different materials I found that the copper heads provided a good contrast against the black You can really do this part any which way you like but I did meticulously measure out the sides and then affix the nails at even intervals Again this is entirely for the aesthetic of it So long as the trim is properly affixed to the underlying wood it ll work just fine strong Adding the Door Lynch Pin and Chain strong photo 1220990 1223581 0 right Holding one of the lynch pins against the left side of the door I wound up placing all of them on the right side of the birdhouses photo I tried a variety of different locking pins and lynch pins for the front door but none of them really accomplished what I was hoping to find My Schlage keypadded door came with a special tool for opening the door in an emergency I noticed that it was the perfect size for a lynch pin and found that I was able to order additional ones directly from the manufacturer on Amazon Use a 3 32 bit and drill the lynch pin hole so that it aligns with the bottom of the bird hole entrance Be sure to align the drill on the side so that it s as centered as possible in the front door Once the hole has been drilled and you ve tested the lynch pin use about 4 5 inches of the brass 5 5mm chain and one of the 4 brass wood screws The brass chain is malleable and should be easy to affix onto the side of the door The lynch pin can just be slid into one of links of the chain and will rest in the looped part This part isn t entirely necessary but given that the birdhouses should be cleaned at least once per year and the fact that the lynch pin is so small it just seemed like a better way to ensure it doesn t get lost during cleaning photo 1221153 1223581 0 center Experimenting with the brass chain photo strong Creating the Mount Points strong photo 1221578 1223577 0 right Affixing the tie plate to the back of the birdhouse photo Starting on the front side of the birdhouse place a mark in the dead center of the 2x4 about 2 from the very bottom of the 2x4 Place another mark in the dead center of the 2x4 where the base of the house walls end Using a 3 16 drill bit drill holes through These will be used for the mounting screws along the stem Flip the birdhouse over and place the tie plate at the very top so that just one row of holes is exposed above the birdhouse itself Use a sufficient number of the Spax 8 3 4 construction screws to affix the tie plate to the back of the birdhouse We ll use the center hole on the top row as a means to secure the top of the birdhouse to a tree You can skip this step if you re planning to mount the birdhouse to a pole strong Affixing to a Tree strong photo 1221254 1223577 0 right The ladder leading up to the mount point for the purple birdhouse photo Insert a 3 10 Spax Construction screw into each of the two holes on the stem I found it best to get them started so that it was easy to screw them into the tree when I was hanging by the ladder The two screws along the stem are likely more than enough to affix the birdhouse to a tree but it s best to use the exposed tie plate as a final mounting hole The screws should be more than long enough to seal against the tree with a significant bit of pressure

New Zealand FAQ h3 strong Technology and Computing strong h3 strong Where does New Zealand stand technologically strong It seems about 2 years behind the US While they certainly have the same technology that we have in the States it is simply more expensive As of now mid 2003 broadband is not entirely common yet and while there are internet cafes spread through and through I would not expect to see a broadband connection in many peoples homes I have yet to see what it is like at the University level strong Have you seen any interesting computing devices in New Zealand strong Two so far They are both regarding coin operated computers The first one I noticed when we were staying at Lake Rotoiti in St Arnaud The hotel restaurant where we had dinner had a coin operated computer that actually dialed up their local ISP when 2 00 NZ 1 20 USD was deposited in the machine This gave you only 10 minutes of dialup internet access Very expensive Though to some credit the dialup access was very fast The second one was at the Top 10 Holiday Park in Kaikoura They simply had a device that would give power to the monitor whenever money was inserted or so that was best I could tell It seemed that the monitor plug went into this coin box There were however two computers So anyone with a little experience could have simply unplugged one of the computers and used its power cord to power the other monitor strong What is broadband access like strong It is certainly not the speeds that we have been accustomed to in the past few years Every so often I will experience about 30 kbs though it seems that my average is around 15 kbs I believe that they actually have the speed its just a matter of how the internet cafes are hooked up When there is only one connection for 30 computers and the place is full not to mention me on my laptop working doubletime it can get a little slow strong Have you had trouble using your laptop in internet cafes strong Yes and No In the more populated cities 50 000 it does not seem to be trouble at all When we have stopped at some of the smaller towns 2 10 000 they are not very willing to let me plug in a laptop I have been denied use in a few places in the city but all in all it seems to not be a problem strong Is there anything you have found that makes computing a little easier strong In most every town we have passed through someone has setup a gaming shop In most towns they are quite plentiful in fact Counterstrike seems to be the game of favor but there are obviously many others These gaming cafes are delighted to give you access to the net and I have found that these are the best places to go In general the people working there have the most computing knowledge the computers are designed for gaming and thus very fast and the networks are designed to handle a great deal of traffic They may cost an extra 1 00 hr but it seems well worth it to me h3 strong Food and Dining strong h3 strong In general what is the food like in New Zealand strong While I have probably not had enough time to make a fair judgement in the relatively populated areas there is a restaurant to fit anyones taste We have yet to really not be able to eat what we want The grocery stores have everything that we have in the US just different labels and brands The only thing that I have found about eating out which is certainly different from the US is that salad does not seem common It seems rare you can eat out in the US without being offered a salad of some sort Not the same here We have only had one salad so far and that came from the grocery store in Palmerston North strong Are there any favorites so far strong Indian food seems to be our favorite in this country thus far It is delicious and plentiful A simple dish of butter or mango curry chicken with steamed rice and nann bread goes along way for a fair price Each restaurant has their own unique variety of the same meal and it is fun to compare strong Could you describe a dining out experience strong It is similar to the US but there are a few differences that in my opinion make it much more enjoyable We are seated as in any other restaurant with our menus The waiter waitress takes our drink order and quickly brings it Note that soft drinks are not served with ice and are non refillable They come back a few minutes later and take your order if you are ready if not they come back when you are They bring you your food a little while later and that is it There is little waiter waitress to patron interaction If you need something you grab their attention and they are happy to bring it to you When you appear finished they take your plates and bring your bill There is no tipping in the country as a general practise and so that is it I enjoy not being hassled every few minutes to see if I need something else or to be asked the ever so hollow question is everything fine On the flip side of that coin the waiters waitresses seem much happier as they are being paid decently to begin with and do not have customers and the desire to be tipped lingering over their heads strong How do the prices compare to the US strong We have really only sat down to a nice meal two or three times but it seems that the dining in experience is similar to slightly cheaper in New Zealand For example the other night we went to a very nice Indian restaurant for dinner We each had a flavored chicken curry dish a large bowl of rice three large pieces of nann and two softdrinks The atmosphere was very nice and the food was delicious The bill was about 44 00 NZ 26 40 USD which seems pretty cheap having each spent about 13 00 USD to eat out Remember there is no tip to pay I would also like to note it is a little cheaper for us because we purchased a travellers Top 10 Holiday Park card We receive a 10 discount at many restaurants hotels and campgrounds across the country and Australia strong Any noticible differences in the food taste strong I have taken quite a liking to Coke a soft drink that I rarely touch in the US It seems to me this is because all Coke in New Zealand is made with pure sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup It tastes distinctly different Fries known in New Zealand as chips seem to have a very different taste We have yet to figure it out but the best we can come up with is that they use a very different oil to deep fry them in It is not a bad taste but it differs quite so from what we are used to back home strong What are the grocery stores like strong Just like the US As aforementioned they have everything that we have just with different labels and brands The most common grocery stores seem to be Woolworths Pak N Save and we have recently come across one called Chopper whose motto is Chopping grocery prices It was a good laugh you can imagine their ads strong Is there tax on food strong As with most everything else in the country there is the standard GST Government Service Tax included This is a 12 5 cut to the government h3 strong People and Culture strong h3 strong What are the people like strong We have been asked this question a number of times and the best answer is that they are incredibly friendly Everyone seems happy to help you with any most anything You are always greeted with smiles and friendly voices and people seem to express a great deal of gratitude when you help them with something Most people are quick to ask where we are from and enjoy asking questions of where we are going what we are doing and for how long It is very enjoyable strong Have you learned much about the Maori culture yet strong Sadly we have come across only a few people that have told us things about the Maori s and their culture Most of our present knowledge comes from books the Te Papa museum in Wellington the Canterbury museum in Christchurch and from having watched the new independent movie The Whale Rider which was very good and will probably be in US movie stores soon h3 strong Weather and Terrain strong h3 strong Any interesting facts about New Zealands terrain strong I am told that you are never further than 90 miles from a coast at any point in New Zealand It seems that that is because of New Zealand s irregular geographical shape There are certainly points where the island is wider than 180 miles but in such places there is water to the north or south strong What is the weather like strong We only have near three weeks of data at this time but the North Island seems comparable to California while the South Island seems more similar to the Northeastern States In the middle of winter most of the North Island was very pleasant and while we had to dress warmly there was no need to entirely bundle up This was true of everywhere except for the center of the island where it does get much colder I am told it commonly freezes and snows around Lake Taupo where we stayed The South Island is wonderful It seems a bit drier and certainly colder than the north As we have travelled further south we have reached snow in Christchurch though you can easily see that all of the mountain ranges to the west have been covered in snow for quite sometime strong Can you compare New Zealand s geography to anything in the US strong Laughing No It is not possible The terrain stretches far beyond what we encounter in the US Many of the towns remind us of a Denver or Boulder Colorado feel but aside from that the countryside is more beautiful than any road we have ever driven down in the US Honestly The Lord of the Rings movie does a very good job showing off the terrain While there is much computer work present in that movie the terrain is exactly as it appears here It is actually humorous seeing the movie trailer after seeing the land because you can see the comparisons so clearly h3 strong Photo Gallery strong h3 strong Why are some of the pictures very dark strong Well there are really two answers to this question The first being that some pictures may be slightly underexposed Although we have a digital camera with us it is still a manual digital camera and it has taken a little while to tweak the apeture settings and whatnot The second and more natural answer is simply that it is dark As of now mid 2003 the sun is setting just after 5pm That means that starting around 2pm or so you can see the onset of dusk On top of this given that it is now the center of winter there is a ton of cloudy weather and the skies often take on that grayish wintery color strong Are those all of the pictures that you are taking strong No While I am sure it will slow down once we are settled somewhere and not exploring the entire country we are shooting about 60 90 pictures every new place we go in full resolution These are stored locally on my laptop though I will need to begin burning them to CD s shortly strong What is your general procedure for adding photos to the gallery strong In general we are taking pictures throughout the day When we arrive to our campsite at night we plug in the laptop and download the pictures from the camera This usually takes 10 20 minutes depending on how many photos we have shot Note Each photo is 2 3 mb times avg 80 pics using a USB port I forgot the firewire cable Afterwards we go through the pictures for our own enjoyment and then once again deciding which ones we should put online These are then batch processed and scaled to 31 giving them a resolution of 793x595 with 21 JPEG compression The batch process also renames them to ASMOKE0000 JPG where the numbers are sequential to what we are putting online Any photos that were shot vertically are manually rotated once the resizing and renaming is complete usually takes 2 3 minutes Then once we find an internet cafe the directories are uploaded to the server h3 strong Getting to Antarctica strong h3 strong Have you found out how to get to Antarctica yet strong No The US International Antarctic Centre is located in Christchurch I am waiting to talk to them strong What kinds of jobs are available in Antarctica strong It seems that there is actually a wide variety I am hoping that my skills and the fact that I am already situated near the point of departure will help in my quest to find a summer job there Note that by summer I mean Oct Feb h3 strong Living in a Dunedin House strong h3 strong How big is the house that you live in strong The house that I live in is very large I probably have a larger bedroom right now than I have ever had in my entire life While it seems that my house is slightly larger than most around here in general they are very good sized This is even more the case when you compare what the actual rent here is I am paying 75 NZ week to live in a very large 4 bedroom and 1 bathroom house with 3 other people There is also however a large backyard a fireplace in each room including the living room A good size front patio with a small stoop Stained glass windows large front bay windows a washer and dryer as one single unit does both without human intervention and all standard kitchen accessories fridge stove etc All of this for roughly 180 US month I am also having to pay about 30 month for power and telephone

Interview With Howard Ludlow Sr photo 261525 740 200 right Howard Ludlow during his interview photo On December 27th 2001 I conducted a brief interview with both of my grandparents father s side Catherine Kitty Ludlow and Howard T Ludlow known as Momma and Poppa respectively This is the interview with Howard The total recorded interview is almost 18 minutes long I have transcribed the interview below and included applicable links detailing certain events and locations that my grandfather described namely using Wikipedia IMDB and Dictionary com iframe width 420 height 315 src http www youtube com embed eNMRlOXlElA frameborder 0 allowfullscreen iframe table class BLOGNarration tr td colspan 2 b SETTING UP THE INTERVIEW HOWARD IS TAKING HIS SEAT b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td Did you want honest answers and stuff td tr tr td valign top Kevin td td That would be helpful td tr tr td valign top Howard td td I can make them up too if you wish td tr tr td valign top Catherine td td Do you want me to get the cane td tr tr td valign top Howard td td No I ll put the cane over here That s ok td tr tr td td td HOWARD IS SEATED FOR THE INTERVIEW td tr tr td valign top Howard td td Now I can fall asleep in this chair if you want me to do that Hello ladies and gentlemen td tr tr td td td LAUGHTER td tr tr td valign top Kevin td td That was very good td tr tr td valign top Howard td td Well I am lector at church you know and I like to speak to the crowds 840 people in our church during the busy season Right now about 100 the un busy season td tr tr td valign top Howard td td Well what dost thou wish hah td tr tr td valign top Howard td td Is that one of those digital type cameras td tr tr td valign top Kevin td td It is td tr tr td valign top Howard td td I don t know anything about them or how to use them or anything else td tr tr td valign top Kevin td td You re not camera shy are you td tr tr td valign top Howard td td No td tr tr td valign top Kevin td td I didn t think so td tr tr td valign top Howard td td No not microphone shy td tr tr td valign top Kevin td td No I don t have a microphone but td tr tr td valign top Howard td td Well what picks up the sound td tr tr td valign top Kevin td td Well there s a little microphone somewhere td tr tr td valign top Howard td td It has something built in there td tr tr td valign top Kevin td td Yea td tr tr td valign top Howard td td Are these lights my better side td tr tr td valign top Kevin td td I got your better side I even dimmed the light down a bit you know It makes you td tr tr td valign top Howard td td Allright makes me shine up better td tr tr td valign top Kevin td td Kind of like a grace Kelly 1940 s td tr tr td valign top Howard td td Oh ok well that looks good Whatever happened to her td tr tr td valign top Kevin td td I don t know I didn t do the followup but td tr table br style clear both table class BLOGNarration tr td colspan 2 b THE INTERVIEW BEGINS b td tr tr td Kevin td td b i So where were you born i b tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px a href http en wikipedia org wiki New_york_city New York City a td tr tr td Kevin td td b i You ll have to be more specific i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px I don t remember the street because I was too young to recall it But it was in the a href http en wikipedia org wiki Bronx Bronx a And uh yea that was it in the a href http en wikipedia org wiki Bronx Bronx New York City a td tr tr td Kevin td td b i And is that where you grew up i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Not in that particular area but in another part of the a href http en wikipedia org wiki Bronx Bronx a yes td tr tr td Kevin td td b i And what part was that i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px The part commonly referred to as the North Bronx Near the not too far from the border of the city of a href http en wikipedia org wiki Yonkers Yonkers a td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Oh the nice part of town i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Yea nice area near the parks No problem td tr tr td Kevin td td b i That s good And what did your dad do i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px He mostly worked in banking areas One type or another of banking jobs Various jobs But mostly as I say in the line of credit and loans and banking work td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Trusting people i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px I don t know if he trusted anybody because I don t trust anybody so I don t know about that td tr tr td Kevin td td b i That s good Uh so and where did you go to highschool i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px I went to DeWitt Clinton in highschool in the Bronx within walking distance of my house And it was the largest all boys highschool in the world With 10 000 boys all boys But not all of them went to the main campus Uhh We had a couple of other branches I would guess that oh maybe about 80 or about 8000 went to the main campus and the others went to the other branches One branch was in Manhattan one branch was in the Bronx another part of the Bronx I don t know if we had any others But we always boasted it was the largest all boys highschool in the world My graduating class we used to graduate twice a year a 6 months arrangement and my graduating class had 1000 boys in it And that was half a year if you want to think of it that way Yep td tr tr td Kevin td td b i That s a lot of people i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Yes it was And uh somehow we got along most of the time td tr tr td Kevin td td b i So then where did you go to college i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px I first went to the city college of New York but I stayed there only a semester maybe a year I think one semester though and after many years later I went to the Fordham College td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Which is in i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px In the a href http en wikipedia org wiki Bronx Bronx a br br I briefly attended a href http en wikipedia org wiki Princeton_University Princeton University a under the Army s specialized training program and I flunked out of it because I have always been rather poor at math and they had a great deal of math in the program In fact if you want a humorous story or maybe it s not so humorous one of the final exams if not the final exam because this was during WWII required you to navigate a bomber from the mainland of the United States to someplace in England I guess it was And you were given all of the things that might happen to you on the trip Everything from fuel consumption to wind altitude all kind of things of that nature and you had to methodically plot this course all the way over to England And I did that as did everybody else But when I got my report back it said that I had failed because I had brought the bomber down in the water somewhere near England instead of at an airport So I went to the professor and uh tried to argue myself into a passing grade on the grounds that after all I came close And I remember him screaming at me saying the Army aircore doesn t want people navigating bombers who come close And that s what happened td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Good story i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px But actually I was in the wrong program anyway When I was in a href http en wikipedia org wiki Princeton_University Princeton a I originally had been sent there to study Arabic At that time they had quite a program it s interesting today to think of that and when I got there they somehow divided us up and half of us studied Arabic and half went into engineering And I got put into the engineering program and that s what got me into trouble td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Ah the math i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px The math namely And some other courses physics chemistry and so on br br With physics it wasn t so bad because you were divided into partners Partner was two fellows And my partner I worked it out that he did all the physics experiments He worked with all the gadgets and timers and whatnot and then I wrote the reports because I could write and he could do the experiments and we got through there ok td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Good i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Ok td tr tr td Kevin td td b i So when did you join the Army i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px 1942 td tr tr td Kevin td td b i WWII i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Yes and that was the war you may have heard of I don t know Read your history books td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Maybe And what did you do i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px I was a private I I didn t do anything I helped the war effort but not very much Anyway td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Did you have to overseas i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px No I didn t No td tr tr td Kevin td td b i So where did they station you i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Well I was stationed in a href http en wikipedia org wiki Camp_Upton Camp Upton a Long Island and uh that s an interesting question a href http en wikipedia org wiki Fort_Bragg 2C_North_Carolina Fort Bragg North Carolina a uhh then back to New York City at that time there had been a large building five stories perhaps which had been the Israel Orphan Asylum which was a Jewish orphanage for children Jewish Children And the Army took it over and converted it into barracks and I was one of the I guess few hundred who were in the Israel Orpham Asylum Of course they didn t call it that once the Army took it over of course And we were there just before and during the rather serious race riots that took place in Harlem in 1943 I guess it was And uh that was a rather serious situation with shooting and that kind of thing because we had fellows in the barracks of this building who literally had to shoot it out with people in other buildings nearby and that sort of thing So I was there And then where did I go next I think I was in the Israel Orphan Asylum before I went to a href http en wikipedia org wiki Fort_Bragg 2C_North_Carolina Fort Bragg a Yea that s right then I went to a href http en wikipedia org wiki Fort_Bragg 2C_North_Carolina Fort Bragg a And I got out of the Army at a href http en wikipedia org wiki Fort_Bragg 2C_North_Carolina Fort Bragg a I d had enough so they couldn t use my splendid services anymore so I quit td tr tr td td td LAUGHING td tr tr td Kevin td td b i So then you went to go teach i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px No of course that was you know 1943 I guess and uh you know I returned home had various jobs until I went to college at Fordham College And then a href http en wikipedia org wiki Fordham_University Fordum University a graduate school td tr tr td Kevin td td b i What did you graduate with i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Well I had my bachelor of science degree and then I got a master of arts and then a doctorate of philosophy td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Cool i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px And my major was economics br br And then I well I actually went to teaching when I had my masters degree and then on to the doctorate td tr tr td Kevin td td b i At Seton Hall i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Well I taught at a href http en wikipedia org wiki Seton_Hall Seton Hall a but I went to a href http en wikipedia org wiki Fordham_University Fordum University a for the graduate program br br Ok You gonna pay me now td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Uh I don t have anything to pay you with i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Well I thought maybe this was a paid commercial or something like this you know td tr tr td Kevin td td b i You could have some wine i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Well no that s true but it s early in the morning and there s a saying in the Navy you don t drink until the sun is over the a href http dictionary reference com search q yardarm yardarm a and it s not over the a href http dictionary reference com search q yardarm yardarm a yet td tr tr td td td LAUGHING td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Close So are there any other interesting stories for my interview i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Well the most interesting of course has been my life with your dear grandmother td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Oh yes I m sure i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px That has been a series of adventures for almost 50 years Most of the adventures pleasant ones She s having trouble with her ear right now I think I can hear in the background Yea unfortunately she has a hearing aid and very difficult inserting it properly and it s rather painful for her We ve taken it back for readjustment a couple of times but it still doesn t seem to be right td tr tr td Kevin td td b i That s understandable i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px And of course the greatest adventures also included having children one of whom is your father td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Yes I m sure he did all types of bad stuff i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px I wouldn t say bad I would say adverturesome I would say original Everything from being a volunteer fireman to other types of legitimate activity td tr tr td Kevin td td b i I see i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px You know when he was a young boy he belonged to the boy scouts and cub scouts I guess first and the cub scouts then and maybe still had an annual derby race where the boys make small wooden cars and they race them down this incline And they time it to see who wins Well I figured I d help your father out so I had the bright idea because they had the dimensions for the car and you couldn t exceed the dimensions but they didn t say anything about the weight So I had got bright idea of taking a heavy spike and putting it under the car to give it more weight so then it would go down the hill faster Well that sounded ok to your father it sounded ok to me it was my idea But when we had the race the spike stuck on the board of the incline and he was disqualified for trying to maneuver this td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Cheating i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Well they didn t say you couldn t do that but unfortunately that s what happened td tr tr td Kevin td td b i And you you used to have a boat i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Yes we ve had several boats And uh the last boat we had was a a href http en wikipedia org wiki Trawler trawler a type boat 43 feet long twin diesel engines and uh we sold that boat ohh I would say it must be about 13 or 14 years ago We used to keep it in the a href http en wikipedia org wiki Chesapeake_Bay Chesapeake Bay a We cruised all over We ve been to a href http en wikipedia org wiki Canada Canada a with it we ve been up and down the a href http en wikipedia org wiki Hudson_River Hudson a throughout a href http en wikipedia org wiki Chesapeake_Bay Chesapeke Bay a obviously other places too td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Was that the LeiLani i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Yes Each of our boats has been named LeiLani And uh I got the name from a motion picture going back to the 1930 s I guess maybe 1936 37 with a href http en wikipedia org wiki Bing_Crosby Bing Crosby a where he sung the song a href http www imdb com title tt0029742 combined Sweet LeiLani a And at that time as a young boy I said if I ever had a boat I m going to name it LeiLani And I remembered that and that s why the name LeiLani means beautiful flower in Hawaiian So all my boats have been called LeiLani td tr tr td Kevin td td b i I did I did try to break one of your boats one time I threw your ropes overboard if I recall i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Well yes I remember that In fact when you were younger than that and you used to cruise on one of our boats with your parents we had a a href http en wikipedia org wiki Flying_bridge flying bridge a And naturally you take small children on a a href http en wikipedia org wiki Flying_bridge flying bridge a and it s kind of risky especially when their in a playpen So your father rigged up the playpen on the a href http en wikipedia org wiki Flying_bridge flying bridge a secured it to the rail and dunked you in it so you couldn t go anyplace that we weren t aware of td tr tr td Kevin td td b i That was clever I was a prisoner i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px More or less It s good practice for years later in life td tr tr td Kevin td td b i Yea I guess so One of these days Well is there anything else you d like to say i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Well it s a pleasure celebrating Christmas here with you and your family and our family and hope you do well in your course and if some professor is reading this or judging it he should know that he has a good student td tr tr td Kevin td td b i That s good i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Ok td tr tr td Kevin td td b i That ll work i b td tr tr td valign top Howard td td style padding left 20px padding bottom 20px Thank you td tr table

Rebecca and Manderlay Oceanfront Property KEVIN LUDLOW RTF 317 FINAL PAPER REBECCA AND MANDERLAY OCEANFRONT PROPERTY FRAN GUILFOYLE APRIL 30 1999 In March of 1940 United Artists released one of Hitchcock s most memorable movies Staring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine Rebecca won the academy award for best picture of the year By this time Hitchcock had released over twenty other films none of which measured up to the intensity of Rebecca Why Perhaps because of the incredibly developed plot which Hitchcock managed to capture in perfection Rebecca has a series of plot twists within it Through these plot twists the viewer s feeling towards the characters changes steadily throughout the movie The resolution also remains uncertain up until the very last minute As the movie opens we learn that Mr de Winter Laurence Olivier is an extremely wealthy and unhappy man Hitchcock holds out on the audience as to why Mr de Winter is so unhappy but we are given some hints He soon falls in love with a young lady Joan Fontaine who is being a paid companion of one of Mr de Winter s female friends They know each other for an extremely short time period and are married Although this happens early within the story line there is certainly a feeling that Maxim is rushing things along from a viewing standpoint It appears that he is a lonely man searching for love and that he could not have found it with such a lady When we view Joan Fontaine s character at this point in the story we see her as a young and na ve girl that would do anything not to work as a servant It is hard for us to view her as a bold and independent woman ready to face the challenges of marriage and a new life The new Mrs De Winter is soon taken to the infamous castle of Manderlay the home of Maxim As the plot continues Mrs De Winter comes into many conflicts with a castle servant Mrs Danvers The servants look down upon her because they all compare her to the first Mrs De Winter Rebecca Around this point in the story Maxim gets very upset with Mrs De Winter on several occasions On one particular occasion Mrs Danvers dresses Mrs De Winters up in a beautiful ball gown for a party that Maxim is throwing It seems at this point that Mrs Danvers is being exceptionally nice to her and that she is a very dynamic character As Mrs De Winter makes her way down the grand staircase in the house Maxim is immediately upset with her He asks her where she got the nerve to wear such a costume and makes her take it off It is at this point that we realize that Mrs Danvers has tricked Mrs De Winter and is not changing after all Through sequences like this our emotions change for the characters From the first minute that we are introduced to Mrs Danvers we see that she is a bitter woman and almost get a sense of hatred towards her It appears that she will not change throughout the entire movie despite Mrs De Winter s constant kindness towards her As a viewer we had a sense of relief when it appeared that Mrs De Winter s efforts had finally paid off Especially after Mrs Danvers kindly created the dress for her Hitchcock had an incredible way of playing with our emotions in this way He would never reveal the behind the scenes look at Mrs Danvers but instead led us to believe that she was finally changing It is nothing more then a kick in the teeth when we find out how Mrs Danvers has wronged her once again Hitchcock could easily have shown us just for a second a mischievous look on Mrs Danvers face or anything to lead us to believe that she was up to no good but he did not This is one of the ways that he was able to create such incredible mysteries When it appears that she can take no more Mrs De Winter finally learns that Rebecca drowned while sailing in a storm or so it would seem We eventually learn from Maxim that his first marriage was nothing but a fraud and that Rebecca never did love him It was all for an image that he wanted to have Our emotions are once again toyed with at this point in the story Maxim goes into great detail about Rebecca at one point in the story and it almost seems as if the new Mrs De Winter is playing the same role to him that Rebecca did He tells her how he loves her and would not hurt her but can we really believe him at this point It seems that Maxim has been all but a good husband to his new wife since very early in the story There is no reason for the viewer to believe that he is all of a sudden going to change and be kind to her as he should We must also question the idea of what really happened to Rebecca Maxim has so much anger and aggression towards his ex wife that makes it seem as if he has killed her Obviously this is exactly what Hitchcock wanted us to believe or he would have told us otherwise through the use of flashbacks or narration Maxim s character has fluctuated throughout the film but around this point he is certainly at the peak of throwing us off He fell in love with Joan Fonatine s character in the first few minutes of the movie After marrying her he mistreats her and neglects to give her the love that she feels for him After it finally seems that he may be ready to tell the truth to Mrs De Winter it is impossible to decipher what the truth really is As an audience we feel that the only protagonist in the movie is Mrs De Winter Both Mrs Danvers and now Maxim seem to have turned for the worst He claims to be innocent of killing Rebecca but there is suspicion from her ex lover that foul play was involved For several scenes Hitchcock has us jumping back and forth in our heads trying to figure out what really did happen To view this movie for a second time with a person that has never seen it can be very humorous during these scenes The frustration level that Hitchcock manages to build up in our minds is incredible When we can finally take no more confusion abuse a doctor proves Maxim could not have killed Rebecca therefore changing our opinion of him once more To those who hated him for believing that he killed Rebecca and lied about it a sense of relief He is once more a likeable character but we now need to find out what really did happen to Rebecca However to those who loved the idea of Maxim being a killer and not really loving Mrs De Winter the frustration sets back in Someone obviously killed Rebecca and if we can prove that it was not Maxim who was it We have learned that Maxim did not in fact kill his wife However about three fourths of the way into the movie we learn that she wanted to die She committed suicide Even though Rebecca is never actually in the film this brings up several questions as to the kind of person that she was She had gotten almost everything out of life that one could possibly ask for She was given an incredible home in which to live more money then she could possibly spend a husband and even servants She did lack one thing however love As a viewer it is hard for us to feel sorry for Rebecca She is the second hand cause of the pain and suffering that the new Mrs De Winter has gone through But still she was willing to take her own life As we learn more and more from Maxim we not only begin to understand how their marriage was a fraud but also Maxim would be ruined if he left her Rebecca claimed that she would tell people how their marriage was a fraud which would make him look terrible in a to others As we hear more and more from Maxim we begin to feel less sorry for Rebecca and more sorrowful towards Maxim Although after time there was not necessarily love in their marriage he still gave her everything that a person could give to another He was also not abusive to her like we might expect To make things even worse Rebecca happened to take her life in the presence of Maxim It is hard to speculate whether or not she did this on purpose which leaves more confusion inside of us She may have purposely killed herself in front of Maxim for the sake of making him remember such a site or she may have just thought it was a way to make things right Rebecca s last intentions alive are never really unveiled in the story line but we know she is dead and that Maxim witnessed it Whether you have loved and prospered or loved and lost it would be a horrible site to see a loved one take their own life To complete this confusing sequence we learn that Maxim put a body on another boat and sent it off in the storm He was afraid of what people might say to find his wife had killed herself or worse to be accused of murder When the authorities found the boat they assumed that it was Rebecca but could not tell because of the damage that the body had gone through Maxim could not face the reality of his own life and was forced to make these decisions in haste Many people could say that Maxim was not a very smart man because of such a decision but I feel that in such a case others would do the same He placed Rebecca on a sailboat and caused it to sink which leads to the previous explanation of her body being found As the story nears an end the new Mr and Mrs De Winter are almost able to go about their lives but not before one more fateful scene As they return home to Manderlay they discover that the beautiful mansion has been set ablaze We feel almost sorry for the turn of events in Maxim s life and now it has gotten even worse One of the final shots reveals Mrs Danvers in the window of the burning building with an expression of pure evil on her face We as viewers are racing with mixed feelings about the plot while watching this scene It finally becomes evident that Mrs Danvers can be considered the antagonist in the movie not only to Maxim but also to his wife When we look back at all of the wrongfulness that Mrs Danvers has brought upon Mrs De Winter we feel a sense of justice being done As in most classical Hollywood narratives the antagonist is taken care of In this particular case it is safe to assume that she has killed herself At the same time however it brings a feeling of sadness to us to see Maxim s estate burned to a ground by a servant that he has housed and fed for so many years Also by this time all of our feelings that Maxim could have been a bad man have been altered He did not kill Rebecca he married Mrs De Winter because he loved her and yet everything that he owned has been destroyed It is terribly upsetting or is it One of Hitchcock s views towards movie making was never to leave the audience with the antagonist getting his or her way He would create that realm of suspense and make you think that everything had gone wrong but then fix it The protagonist will win So leave it to him to once again twist things around for the better If we read into what Manderlay really was we find that it was nothing more then a graveyard of memories of Rebecca Everything from the carpet to the ceiling was designed and picked out by Rebecca Maxim is finally given a chance through fate to start a new life to rid himself of the horrible memories that Rebecca has left him with Of course who better to do it then Rebecca s personal servant Mrs Danvers Although it is somewhat harder to find then in many of Hitchcock s movies all is well for the protagonists We feel a sense of relief for Maxim and are happy that he and Mrs De Winter can move on I can only imagine if the story had continued that Mr and Mrs De Winter would be seen building their own house together As we look back at this immeasurable plot line we can understand why Rebecca was such a successful movie With the exception of Mrs De Winter every character goes through drastic changes throughout the film or so Hitchcock got us to believe Mr and Mrs De Winter are clearly the protagonists of the movie Maxim and Mrs Danvers appear to be very dynamic characters but I disagree Mrs Danvers has nothing but bitterness running throughout her from the beginning of the film until her death At times it seems that she is changing but it never does once stick with her Maxim is just the opposite He is so full of love for his new wife but it seems at times that he is not treating her as he should He is however merely trying to protect her from the past that he himself can not deal with As things wind down it is quite clear that he is still full of love and that his second marriage has a strong foundation It has been said that a fool builds his house on sand and a wise man on solid ground If this is true Manderlay was a beach Fortunately for Maxim solid ground was just around the corner

New Zealand Today Response photo 264397 740 300 right The cover of the magazine photo While taking a rather enjoyable and short flight from Christchurch to Dunedin I came across a seven page article in an NZ Today magazine written by editor Allan Dick With a bolded introduction proposing my thoughts in return for 100 and a supply of tea I could not refuse the offer I love tea My background in brief I am an American citizen twenty five years of age and have been traveling this fine country for the past seven months I hold an honors degree in Mathematics and have resided in the state of Texas most of my life I am generally employed as a computer programmer or web developer but I love to write especially when there is some degree of philosophy involved I am of the age where I still believe I can help the world and my future ambitions include working with NASA and even running for president of the United States Dear Mr Dick I found your views of the world fairly entertaining and certainly captivating enough for a travel through the sky There are a few things I disagree with and I would like to use this time to share them with you Firstly I would like to comment on your thoughts regarding toll roads and tax increases on petrol Allow me to note early on that I am much more in favor of toll roads over petrol taxing The reason is fairly simple toll roads ultimately create a simpler albeit more expensive passage from points a to b I doubt very sincerely that a toll road that whisks drivers to an uncharted area will be built or that an existing road will be tolled without the existence of alternate perhaps somewhat longer routes Because of this I see a toll road as a luxury a luxury affordable to those who are willing to pay its toll Petrol tax is amongst other things a highly regressive tax You can assume that as I have found my way to New Zealand such a tax increase would not ruin me and I will assume that since you are a published editor that it would not ruin you either but it seems somewhat unfair to simply include you and I in this mix The people that it hurts are those near the poverty line They pay the same 5 cent per liter increase as an example that you or I would only it is significantly more of their income with each liter pumped I have been asking myself why you make petrol cost comparisons to the UK Europe and Japan but fail to include the United States Not surprisingly these comparisons follow the same introduction that claims Petrol in this country is too cheap Petrol in New Zealand by any American standard is incredibly expensive Even with gas prices currently high in Texas I would expect to pay no more than 1 30 US gallon 0 51 NZ liter A Californian who would probably pay the most within the US might shell out around 2 40 US gallon 0 94 NZ liter Within that range prices can vary significantly around the United States but any way you dice it it is still considerably less expensive than anywhere in New Zealand That brings me to your claim that if petrol was not so inexpensive that New Zealanders would all be driving smaller cars Again using my homeland as an example the SUV Explorers Land Runners etc has been on the rise for years now Americans want their cars larger and the car companies will stop at nothing short of being able to transport your entire estate in the backseat I realize that this is the same idea that you describe occurring in New Zealand but what s wrong with it Your claims are not geared at being more efficient nor reducing gasses in the atmosphere but rather your argument is with respect to transport and traffic problems Not only that but specifically if people want to fix the aforementioned problems they will need to expect an increase in petrol tax I did not say I have a PhD in mathematics but lets see if I can get the algebra right If I drove a truck that only got 14 miles gallon and tax on gas is roughly 40 cents per gallon then I am giving the government roughly 2 8 cents per mile of travel On the other hand if I drove a mini that got 40 miles gallon with the same tax rate then I am paying the government only 1 cent per mile traveled The distance is the same but I am ultimately paying a higher tax rate to drive that gas guzzling vehicle Also as the truck s four wheels do not harm the roads any more than the mini s four wheels the road maintenance cost is the same for both Don t get me wrong I am not advocating further pollution of the Earth but you neglect to discuss green politics and thus I am simply arguing that driving smaller cars hurts the government s revenue rather than helps it This is especially true when we throw diesel into the equation Another point I would like to make is regarding your visit to a Challenge petrol station Perhaps you are much wealthier than I but the ability to save money is just that Your blurb about a man thinking he would save 20 on petrol at a Challenge station over a BP station is humorous but its connotation is also somewhat arrogant Years ago I would ask my mother why she spent the time to cut out market coupons in the Sunday paper even though I knew we could afford our groceries without them Her response was always you don t become wealthy by wasting your money It seemed silly to me when I was ten but it is perfectly logical now Consistently saving 2 cents per liter of gas adds up quite quickly and claiming the savings are not worth your thought is capitalistically incorrect It is incredible what amount of money a shrewd shopper is able to save in a year saving on petrol is just one of those savings Furthermore scoffing at the consumer for his or her desire to save a few pennies undermines the goal and ability of a free and competitive market to work for the consumer You point out in the same passage how even though only a few pennies could be saved via Challenge the BP station was still empty It is by that very example that the BP station would ultimately have been forced to lower its petrol prices by 2 cents in order to resume business If Challenge then wished to drop another cent or two it could do so thus regaining control of the local market and BP would have to match it and so on and so forth Eventually both stations would assume a financial level where they could no longer afford to drop their prices and the competitive market has been a success the consumer is now paying the most nominal price for his or her petrol In regards to your overall argument this does not adversely affect what the government collects as the tax rate on petrol remains constant If anything the government is able to collect slightly more from this local market as people may be more inclined to consume higher quantities of petrol finally available at a cheaper rate As for your concluding paragraphs in this section I tend to agree We could probably solve a lot of problems in the world if real solutions were provided and the powers that be ie politicians stuck to those solutions instead of finding ways to mend them for personal financial gain Since however we do not live in such an idealistic world we need to work with what we have Flat taxes can be great in certain areas specifically when some of the proceeds will help those that the tax hurts most Increasing petrol tax does not do this There is zero return a poor person will expect to gain over a wealthy person with reduced traffic or better roads Choosing between your two options the toll road only financially hurts those who choose to drive it You could argue that it s the same thing where higher petrol taxes only affect those who choose to purchase petrol Unfortunately for many that is similar to arguing that increasing food prices only affects those who eat definitely a true statement but immensely unfair given the necessity If you d like to use my math from above to help your government increase revenue get rid of those small engine anti gas gobbling three cars you have Instead buy a car that gets 1 kilometer to the liter You ll be paying the government the full tax rate for each kilometer traveled The ozone hole over Alexander may slightly increase but you ll get to work faster thanks to reduced traffic from increased government profits Another section of your article that I would like to comment on is regarding the assassination of John F Kennedy I certainly am not picking on you in this matter as there are literally millions of people that have written about the conspiracies that may or may not have existed The point that I would like to bring across especially when depicting American history in a New Zealand magazine is that Kennedy contrary to popular belief is not that unique Ask any American which presidents have been assassinated and you ll most definitely hear Kennedy A generous proportion will also tell you Lincoln I doubt very sincerely however that you will hear the likes of James Garfield or William McKinley both assassinated The fact is that 4 of 43 presidents have in fact been killed just over 9 of our complete presidential history Moreover 4 additional presidents have suffered assassination attempts the most famous probably being Ronald Regan yielding roughly an 18 chance that someone may try to kill you while president of the US Why then is Mr Kennedy so famously credited with being assassinated I have no idea whether or not there was a conspiracy to kill JFK but what I do know is that is that we as humans tend to make up better stories about the more popular or controversial figures There is nothing terribly surprising about that logic but it does put a nasty thorn in the side of conspiracy theorists because scientifically speaking the control group less popular figures has suffered just as many occurrences So what was the great conspiracy to kill McKinley or Jackson or even Truman Gerald Rudolph Ford had assassins after him twice why didn t Oliver Stone make a movie titled GRF The reason is simply that there just is not enough controversy and mystery to dig up Truman approved the incineration of tens of thousands of people in minutes you would think we could find good reason to discuss gunner Oscar Collazo at the same level as Oswald but the time was different WWII did not have the same controversy as the Vietnam war The media format of the time was different and there was not a tremendously sized hippie movement in the 40 s as there was in the 60 s Best of all Collazo was not Japanese and the assassination attempt had nothing to do with the atomic bombs at all but rather issues regarding Puerto Rico The elements just happen to line up for JFK That does not take away from the notion that there could have been a conspiracy but rather that it s easier for us to believe there must have been one instead of considering that perhaps we are over examining one moment in time It does seem that Oswald could not have acted alone but why is it so impossible to accept that perhaps his partner s in crime got lucky and ultimately got away Plain and simple Will we ever know Most likely we will not But quoting you in public life perception is often more important than reality I could not agree more with that statement and would like to use it for my own benefit We will always be more infatuated with the perception that the government set all of pieces moving rather than the possibility that one or two radicals didn t like Kennedy Either way given he was just one of eight presidents targeted for removal in American history his assassination is not quite as unique as we have made it out to be for 40 years I hope you will find my comments insightful and fully worth a supply of tea photo 264396 740 520 left My response in print Page 1 photo photo 264399 740 520 left My response in print Page 2 including Mr Dick s own commentary on the paper photo