Timeline of my life

If I Were Elected King of the Country

My new friend asked me a few weeks ago, "what would you change about the world, if you had the power to?"

She said she tried to ask all new people she met that question.

She said it was surprising how many people didn't have an answer because they had never thought about it.

I couldn't answer, but for a very different reason.

I just couldn't sum up, couldn't choose from the list what to say first.

I've been thinking about it ever since then, and I still can't find any way to tie all the various things together, so, instead of going into the detail about how and why for each one, I think I'll just list as many as I can think of.

(and if anyone wants elaboration on any in particular, ask me as a comment, and maybe I'll make that one its own post)

These are in no particular order:

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Election day would be a national holiday.  No one could be forced to work more than a 4 hour day on election day. 

Anyone not registered to vote would pay a small annual penalty with their taxes.

Judges would be subject to recall by popular vote.

Congressional, presidential, and governor terms 6 years.

All term limits would be eliminated.

All elections would be instant run off type (or another equivalent to eliminate "lesser of two evils" votes).

Party, primary, and electoral college systems eliminated.

Voter initiative process on federal level, and all 50 states.

All campaign related ads would be banned from TV, radio, print, direct mail, and billboards, starting 1 year prior to any election.  Each candidate or initiative would receive expanded space in the official election guide.  All statements made that could not be verified by an independent 3rd party fact checker would be marked with an asterisk.

No individual could donate more than $500 to any campaign or political organization in a year.  No company or corporation could donate any amount to any campaign or political organization.  No union, church, or other group could donate without 100% unanimous consent of all members, and then no more than the equivalent of $100 per member.  For any amount an individual spent out of pocket for a campaign, they would have to contribute an equal amount to the public campaign fund. 
All of this would be less important, giving the ban on media ads.

Media (of any form) which reports any mistaken information or error as factual, would be required to report the correction with equal or greater prominence and length of time as the original mistake (if error was headline for 3 days, retraction must be headline for 3 days)

Public school would be paid at the national level, by number of students (regardless of performance).  Any outside income (gifts of cash or supplies by parents for example) would reduce funding by 50% of the amount of income (i.e. parent donates $100, then federal funding is reduced by $50), used for the pool, to benefit schools with less generous parents.

Teacher training and classroom curricula would be evidence based

No multiple choice test could be used for assessment.  Guiding principal should be teaching for understanding, not just retention of facts.

Preschool and kindergarten would both become mandatory and free.

2 and 4 year college / university would be voluntary, free for any family below median national income.

All college finals would be administered one semester after the end of the class (to test for long-term retention)

Public school teacher salaries would be cut by roughly 5-10% (approximately the amount private school teachers make), principals and administrators by 25-50% (to be within 25% more than teachers).  All of this extra money would go to hiring more teachers to reduce classroom size. 

Teachers would have at least 15min of prep time for each 55min of instruction.
They would be eligible for overtime after 112 hours per month(equivalent annual hours to other jobs, considering summer and other breaks - after reduced work hours, (see below))

Cognitive biases, logical fallacies, and predictable irrationality would be a required course in middle school, high school, and college (beginning, intermediate, and advanced, respectively).

Drug use would be decriminalized.  Selling without a license would not be.  Prostitution and gambling would also be legal, (though regulated and taxed).

No law or regulation could stay in effect unless it can be shown to tangibly benefit some individual or society as a whole.

No censorship of "indecency" (nudity, sex, language)

Sex ed would be taught in preschool, 5th grade, and 12th grade, each class more advanced and in-depth (the first would be similar to current Jr High level, the last would be equivalent to college Human Sexuality course).  It would be a graduation requirement, so no opt out.

It would be illegal to formally teach any child below the age of 18 any form of religion, (other than in a historical or sociological context).  This would include attending services.

Churches would no longer be tax exempt.

No government recognition of religion or God, even in a neutral, non-specific way (e.g. "...One Nation, Under God..." or "In God We Trust")

All pronouns would be replaced with gender neutral ones.

All restrooms and locker rooms would be unisex (with individual stalls, and/or separate areas of the room optionally)

Combat and infantry roles would be available to women in the military.

No government or business could mandate different dress codes by gender.

This would include that women could be topless anywhere that men could.

Public beaches and parks would be clothing optional.

All laws on sexual assault, age of consent, marriage, etc would be gender neutral (this would, among other things, inherently legalize gay marriage).

No cosmetic surgery (including circumcision and pierced ears) before the age of 18

All subsidies and price controls for feed crops would be eliminated.

Minimum standards for animal welfare would include daily access to outdoors and a diet resembling a "natural" one - i.e. herbivores could not be fed animal by-products, nothing would be fed manure, nor its own specie, nor a reciprocal specie (i.e. Animal A is fed animal B, and animal B is fed animal A)

All new cars would be governed to a maximum of 65mph, or to the maximum of the state is is sold in, whichever is lower.

Each lane on any highway with 2 or more lanes in each would direction would have specified lane speeds. A two lane would have a maximum speed of 65 and minimum of 55 in the left lane, and max of 55 and minimum of 40 in the right. 
For a 3 lane, from the left, the speeds to maintain would be 60mph, 50, and 40 (each +/- 5mph).  A 4 lane would be 60, 55, 50, and 45 (+/-5).  A 5 lane would be 60, 55, 50, 45, 40 (+/-5). 

Speeds on all highways would be monitored by randomly placed, (and periodically moved) radar machines - a combination of the radar systems that say "your speed is:" and the camera detection system that catch red light and toll violators.  Like the latter, they would look up registration by plate number, and mail you your ticket.

The first 2 violations would be warning.  The 3rd would be a $100 fine.  The 4th would be a $500 fine.  The 5th would be one week mandatory community service.  The 6th would be license suspension for a year.

No one could get a drivers license without an intensive driver's ed class (50 hours minimum).  It would cover all the basics, plus: changing oil, checking tire pressure / fluid levels, changing a wheel, and safety check - cone tests, parallel parking, driving in reverse - calculating speed, distance, and time, as well as braking distance and impact force at different speeds - fuel economy, basic hypermiling - safe and legal bicycle operation - auto crashes, causes and prevention - practical accident avoidance, using simulator - poor weather handling, rain, ice, snow, fog, and glare - driving with manual transmission.  The final test could not contain any multiple choice questions, and would cover all topics, some as hands on skills tests.

Driving class (as above) would have a 2-3 day mandatory refresher course every 10 years - every 5 years before age 25 and after age 60, as well as after every moving violation or accident

No communication device while driving (including hands free) except 2-way radios used in the course of a job which involves driving (truck and taxi drivers, emergency services)

Public safety tax based on weight for all motor vehicles, added to annual registration (i.e. one pays for the additional risk to everyone else caused by their choice to buy a 3 ton SUV rather than a 1 ton car) - based on the grand total public cost of all accidents, divided by the total number of registered cars, proportioned by weight.

Anyone found to be 1% or greater at fault in any auto "accident" would be automatically charged with criminal negligence.

Revoke mandatory airbags, seatbelts, crash rating standards.

Traffic lights would flash green before turning yellow (as in Mexico).  They would flash red before turning green (so you know to turn your engine back on)

Stop signs would be considered yield signs for bicyclists (as in Ohio)

All 4-way stop sign intersections would be converted to either a 2-way stop, a traffic circle, or a stop light.

All major one-way streets would have timed / synchronized stop lights.

50% tax on retail gasoline, money used to subsidize public transit.

At rush hour, instead of a carpool lane, the left most lane would be for commercial vehicles (being used for work, not for commuting), transit, emergency services, and people with permanent disabilities only.  On highways with 3 or more lanes, the next one over from the commercial / handicapped lane would be for carpools of 4+ people, plus toll road paid by electronic RFID tag

Upper limit of inheritance or gifts of $10,000.  The government income from estates would replace all (or at least most) of the income tax.

The rate for any remaining income tax would be at least half for earned income (wages / salary / commission) as for unearned income (dividends, capital gains, gifts, prizes).

The tax rate on unearned income would be steeply progressive, with a maximum rate of 99% after $100,000.

One may only own land which you personally live and/or work on - i.e. a maximum of two parcels (one for work, one for home) per person.  They can be any size, so long as they are a) continuous and b) actively and directly used by the owner in some way.

No one could have more than 2 households as tenants, and then only if the tenants share the same parcel that the landlord lives on.

Corporate charters would only be granted for very specific circumstances, where it is demonstrated that the product or service offered could not be provided by a privately held company, and that it is of overall benefit to society.  Any charter application which met those standards and was granted would be for a specific and limited time period - 1 year by default, 5 years with requested extension, 10 years considered with an explanation of the need for a longer time period.

Patents and copyright would be good for 10 years, or until a 25% return on investment was made by the patent/copyright holder, or until the applicant dies whichever came first.

Business licenses and fees would be by percentage of net income, not flat amounts.

Business insurance companies would be required to offer a broad range of coverage and deductible amounts, so that small scale and hobby businesses with low maximum potential risk could afford coverage.

Any form of business could be run out of one's residence unless a specific risk or harm to the neighbors could be demonstrated.  "Lowering property values" would not in-and-of itself be a valid form of harm.

Employers would not pay for the employees' payroll taxes.  The employee would cover the full amount of their own social security and medicare taxes.

Employers would also not cover medical insurance, but that would be irrelevant, because there would be nationalized, single payer, health care.

1/2 of company profit would be distributed equally among all employees, without regard for title or position.  Any increase in efficiency due to improved technology that were not passed on to the consumer would be distributed to employees either in the form of fixed hours and increased salary, or fixed salary and decreased hours.

No one could sue for loss of profit.

A company with more than zero profit could not lay off employees.

Overtime would be anything over 86 hours per month, would pay time and a half, no exceptions by profession, would apply to salary and commission as well.  Double time after 172 hours in one month.

No company or corporation could buy another.

No company could have more than one location, except in those cases where the nature of the company required multiple locations (such as delivery service).  Exception could be made on a case by case basis, if the expansion could be shown to benefit society as a whole enough to offset the anti-competitiveness.

Any company based in the US, or with a majority of US shareholders, or with 1% or more of product exported to the US, must follow all US wage, safety, and environmental laws and regulations, regardless of the location of production.  (For example, if a company builds a factory in China, they still must pay US minimum wage if they want to export the product into the US)

No US military protection of private property, on US soil or abroad.  For example, US oil companies would have to pay for their own private security to guard pipelines.  Private corporate interests could not be considered "national interests", even if the product they produce is of value to the nation.

Any action of military or CIA is automatically war, whether or not it is officially declared.

Any action longer than 5 days must be approved by congress.  Any action longer than 60 days must be unanimously approved by all 50 states (via senators and/or governors).  Any action longer than one year requires majority vote of all US citizens.

Military budget reduced by 90% (give or take).  It could never be increased to more than 10% less than whatever nation has the highest military budget.

Universal conscription of all citizens at 18, both genders, deferments for medical issues, but no other reason.  Everyone must attend bootcamp.  After that, choice of 2 years of either military service, or civil service.

In middle school, high school, and college, reversible long-term birth control would be provided at no cost to both genders (yes, the technology exists).  This would be voluntary, and either child or parent could choose to opt out for any reason, however it would be the default - everyone would get it unless they actively choose to opt out.

(Voluntary) permanent sterilization would be provided at no cost to all adults.

All forms of contraceptive would be covered in full through health care.

Child tax credits would be eliminated.

Welfare would provide a fixed amount per household - it would not increase with additional children.

Universal, single payer healthcare - however, in order to engage in certain high risk activities, you would have to opt out.  You would present your opt out card before buying cigarettes, and to get a registration sticker with a stripe which indicates you may drive a car without a seatbelt of ride a motorcycle without a helmet.  Possibly also for purchasing more than a certain quantity of alcohol at one time, and certain foods.  Anyone who opted out could be refused service at any hospital unless they pay in full in advance, even in emergencies.  They could still purchase private health insurance, if any private insurer wanted to cover them.



Citizenship would not be automatic:
At age 18, each person would need to pass the same citizenship exam that immigrants have to pass (this would be covered in high school). 
They would  have to go to military bootcamp, and then either serve in the military or in civil service for 2 years.  They would have to register to vote. 

Anyone choosing not to apply for citizenship would be considered a native resident. 

Native residents would not have to pay any taxes.

They also could not vote or run for office.  They would not be eligible for public assistance, including health care and (college level) education.  They could not drive motor vehicles on public roads, nor sue in court.  They would be responsible for the labor, fuel, and expenses if using emergency services such as police or firefighters. 

One could apply for citizenship at anytime, up to age 40, however, once revoked, you could not get it back for 15 years, and would have to begin the process from the beginning.

Fushi and Saiba

I first met Fushi and Saiba in January of 2004.

They were only about a month or two old at the time.

I had lived with their mother, Midnight - a tiny all black cat who liked to hide under places so she could attack my ankles when I walked by - throughout the previous summer, at a traveling carnival in the midwest.
She was the only cat in the household, and was indoors only.  She got out just once, for just a few hours, but then, that's all it takes.

My aunt Joy, who was Midnight's human, came to New York (where I worked at the time) to visit, since the carnival is closed during the winter.  When we met, she asked if we might want a kitten.  Since me and Aileen (my wife at the time) both worked full time, I said we should get two, so they would have someone to keep them company during the day.
We got one boy and one girl, both with gray and black tiger stripes, and white "socks" on some feet.

They were so tiny I could literally hold them both in the palm of one hand.  We brought them home (to our RV in NJ) in a backpack.  The boy curled up in a tiny ball at the bottom, while the girl stood on top of him so she could reach her head out the top and look around.
That pretty well summed up their personalities for the rest of their lives.

The first day in their new home they hid in the tiny space between the sofa cushion and the computer desk, a space maybe 4"x4"x12".  They came out for food, and began exploring.  When we showed them the litter box they knew instantly with no coaxing what it was for.  We soon had to build a wall around it though, because in their zeal and impatiences to get back to playing, they would tear out of it at top speed every time, like a redneck in a muscle car on a dirt road, leaving a trail of kitty litter behind them along the floor.

We waited a couple days to get to know them before figuring out their names.  We went through various sound combinations before settling on Saiba and Fushi.  I initially suggested Saiba for the boy and Fushi for the girl, but Aileen pointed out that there personalities warranted the reverse, and she was quite obviously correct, and their names were set.

When they were kittens they were indoor only.  They were curios about the world outside the door, and tried to sneak out.  I decided one day to let them see how unpleasant it was outside so they wouldn't keep trying, so, under close supervision, I let them venture into the snow.  I figured once they realized the outside was wet and very cold, they would run right back in.  Instead they ran under the housecar and hide behind the tire.  Then they both started crying because it was cold and they were unhappy and scared, and they wanted me to rescue them.  Only, they refused to come to me when I called them, so I had to crawl underneath on my belly, through the snow, and retrieve them both manually.

From the start Saiba was adventurous and mischievous.  Fushi watched what she did, and tentatively followed.  She would jump up on the counter to sneak treats, then he would follow, she would hear us coming and jump down and run away, leaving her brother to get in trouble for the crime she had encouraged him to participate in.  She also loved unrolling toilet paper.  When we started keeping it so it couldn't be unrolled, she found fun in simply shredding all the spare rolls.

I tried to build them playgrounds and beds, and bought them stimulating looking toys, but they generally shunned anything intended for them - why sleep on a soft warm cat bed, when there is a  hard lumpy computer keyboard to sleep on?  Why play with a fake mouse filled with catnip, when it is so much more fun to deliberately knock everything on the table onto the floor one item at a time, and watch them fall?  I don't fully understand cat psychology.  All I can say is they were both too cute to possibly be mad at.

Especially since they always meant well.  Unlike a lot of cats I've met, neither of them ever deliberately scratched, and never bit in anger (just the occasional affectionate nip) - not even when we would torture them by doing things like trimming their claws or giving them baths.  They would try to escape, but were never ever aggressive.

...to humans.  They were both remarkably skilled at catching flies.  I never knew a cat could catch a fly, but they did, to every fly that got in the house, and then they would eat it... usually.  Except the one time I followed a trail of ants to the dragon fly one of them had hidden under the floor mat.

They spent plenty of time play fighting with each other.  Wrestling matches frequently ended up with them on the floor, head to toe, each clutching the other's body with their front paws, and kicking each other furiously in the head with their back paws.  Its a sight that has to be seen to be fully appreciated.

They also both loved their humans to play with them, and to sit on our laps.  They liked to sleep on us, but they are semi-nocturnal and would wake up and play the game where you attack anything moving beneath a blanket, and that didn't really work for the humans, so we compromised, and let them sleep at the very foot of the bed as long as they left quietly if they wanted to get up, and didn't walk on us.  Saiba accepted this compromise, but Fushi was inconsistent - to the point where eventually (years later) he was one of the key factors in deciding to upgrade to an RV with a bedroom door, instead of just a curtain.

They also were always very affectionate with each other.  They spent about as much time liking each other's fur as their own.  Sometime, when they were lying together, they would so seamlessly go between cleaning themselves and each other.  It was often time hard to tell where one ended and the other began.  Sometimes I suspected even they weren't sure.  But it didn't matter, because they were brother and sister, and they loved each other.

When they were about 4 or 5 months or so they began to be a bit too affectionate with each other (if you know what I mean) so we had to get them altered ahead of our original schedule.  We were poor back then but we found a program to help with that sort of thing.

It didn't seem to affect Fushi one way or the other.  It could have been a coincidence of timing, but it seemed Saiba was a little less interested in affection from her brother after her operation.  She still played with him, still let him tag along on her adventures, and she still absolutely loved humans (especially her caretaker/roommate humans, but all other humans too), but she increasingly distrusted all other animals, and even Fushi only got a partial pass.

About this time all the snow had melted, and they were getting a bit bigger.  Plus they were now both sterile, and had all their shots and flea protection.  They were getting increasingly restless and crazy in a 150 square foot space, and it was time for them to gain some freedom.  I put a plastic curtain in the gap between the open window and the frame with just enough flap at the bottom for a cat to fit through while keeping bugs and weather out.  They got bells on their collars to protect the birds, and went out to explore.

Saiba got herself stuck in a tree, but then she figured out she could jump on to the roof from there.  Ever after it was common to hear tiny feet scurrying across the roof at any random time.  The only rule was the had to be in before dark, or else the window would be closed and they would have to spend the night outside (just like Peter Pan).  Once she figured out how to get on the roof though, she realized she could come right up to the skylight above the bedroom and cry until we let her in.

Over the winter we had sealed up the space below the house for insulation.  I didn't like the cats getting under there, because all the pipes and random crap was down there, and because we couldn't get them back out.  So I put a brick on the one access opening to beneath the house.

One day Aileen and I were playing badminton outside.  Fushi sat next to the field, perfectly still, just watching the biride fly back and forth, back and forth.  Occasionally someone would miss and it would fall, but he would just sit there, watching.  Biding his time.  Until it fell in exactly the right spot and he sprang into action like a jack-in-the-box, grabbed the birdie in his mouth, pushed open the access door to under the house like the brick wasn't even there, dropped the birdie in the exact center of under the house so it would be as difficult as possible for us to reach it, and came back out the door and returned to his original location, all faster than the time it took you to just read this sentence.  He ended our game, but it was one of the most random and funny things I have ever seen him do.

In late summer of 2004 we moved back to CA.  Fushi absolutely freaked out.  He had no idea that his house was also a motor vehicle.  He hid inside the furnace, and cried constantly.  Saiba sat on the table and watched the world go by in the window. We stopped at burning man on the way home.  They say no dogs, but they never technically said no cats.  

Then they lived at my mother's house for a few months.  They would sometimes go out on adventures for 24 hours or more, but once Saiba didn't come back for several days and we started to worry.  I combed the neighborhood until, a block away, I heard what sounded like her voice.  I asked the neighbor if he had a cat, and he didn't, so we realized it was my cat trapped in his garage.  Apparently she snuck in just as he parked his car, on his last day of work for the week. 

A little after that their nighttime mischief helped us decide to get a bigger better place to live.  They made the transition quickly and easily.  I had a window replaced with plexiglass and installed a cat door in it.  We moved to Oakland, and they got along reasonably well with the many strays that our new neighbors fed, though Saiba was growing increasingly intolerant, and occasionally getting into fights.

At one point she got some sort of UTI.  Before antibiotics and a change in diet fixed her up, she was peeing much more often, so she decided to find extra places to do it.  For some reason she thought the space between the couch cushions was a drain.  But it wasn't.  Once we got her to change her mind about the suitability of that spot, she then started using the bathroom sink.

Of course that was an absolutely fine alternative - better, in fact, than the litter box.
Until, that is, one time when she was on the roof, and realized that the roof vent was directly above the sink, and figured that she could just pee through the roof vent instead.  Well, pee doesn't just go straight down when you pee in a roof vent.  It splashes all over everything - and everyone* - in the bathroom.  Clever theory, my kitty friend, but unsuccessful in practice.  That was even worse than the sofa cushions.

*Everyone, at that moment, happened to consist of me.

Unfortunately Saiba's hatred of all other cats started getting worse.  When her brother tried to clean her or play with her, inevitably she would interpret something he did as aggressive, and it would frequently escalate to a fight.  Meanwhile she was starting fights almost daily with the strays in "her" territory (everywhere she went, even into other cats' homes, quickly became her territory.  When we were traveling and a friend would cat sit them, they would take over the house, while the resident cat stayed out of their way!)  At any hour of day or night us and the neighbors could here them yelling at each other.  Even in her quiet moments she started to seem stressed out, so we found a place that wanted a cat, where there were no other cats around to compete with.  We brought her to a restaurant and bar in the city that had a mouse problem.  She lived in the kitchen, where the mice were, but she would sometimes visit the top floor, where some staff lived, or the middle floor with the diners.  We came to visit a few weeks later, and she they had given her a sequined collar, and had gourmet wet food out to eat.  She came up to us and seemed to remember us, but its hard to tell because she always loved all humans.

We tried to visit again a month later, but we were informed she had disappeared.  They said she had never tried to get out the entire time she was with them, so they suspected one of the customers might have catnapped her.
I'll never know, but I prefer to believe that she was adopted by someone, and still lives somewhere in the city.

Meanwhile Fushi adapted to life without his sister.  He began interacting more with other cats and people.  Everyone loved him, especially the children.  Once a neighbor asked me if I needed money for cat food, because apparently he had been eating the food they left for the strays.  No, he is just a sneaky little guy who really likes food.  Ever since he gained 4 lbs (50%!) over his sister we started rationing his food.  Now he had finally found a way around that.

I settled into a pattern of feeding him at exactly 7am and 7pm.  Starting at about 6 we would start whining, reminding me it was almost food time.  He had always been very communicative, with very distinct meows for "hungry" and "let me in", "scared" and "unhappy" and "content".  My favorite to hear was his short chirp that just meant "hello" that he would make the first time he saw you when he came home from outside.  But his "almost food time" meows were persistent and downright annoying, and they earned him the nickname Chairman Meow, pronounced like the Chinese word for cat, which sounds quite a bit like the sound he would make.

I always used to say Fushi was not a particularly bright cat - until one day, in a particularly heavy rainstorm, he decided he didn't want to have to go outside and get all wet, and, having given up his litterbox years before, he peed in the toilet instead.  I never taught him to do it, never encouraged it in anyway.  I had considered it, because I had heard cats could be trained to, but considering how long it took him to learn to use the new cat door, I figured it would be futile.  And then he just figured it out on his own instead.  What a fantastic kitty.

Fushi lived with me longer than my (now ex) wife did.  He lived with me more years than my ex and my current partner Jessica combined.  Besides my immediate family, I spent more time with him than any other living thing, human or otherwise.  When he got old, and gave up playing as too immature, his favorite activity was to sit on Jessica or my lap, and just be there with us.  He still went on nightly adventures, but he would wait until we went to bed.  As soon as we closed the door at night, he would head out.  I have no idea where he would go or what he would do, but I had reports from the neighbors that he traveled a lot further than I ever knew about.

When he was about 10 he got sick one day.  He stopped eating, and his abdomen started to swell.  The vet drained the fluid, gave him a prescription, but the blood test and x-rays were inconclusive.  He started eating after his treatment, and was briefly normal, but over the next week he gradually gave up food and water until I started feeding him manually.  Cats have this stupid thing were going a few days without food damages their liver, which makes them not want to eat, which makes the damage worse, and its a viscous downward spiral.  He would fight with me over whether he should eat or not, but I generally, with much persistence, and much mess, would win.  He kept up his strength and went outside sometimes.  He wouldn't cry and didn't try to hide, but he lost a lot of weight and he no longer wanted to sit on laps.  There are about a dozen different possible causes of abdominal fluid build up in cats, many of which either: can self-correct with time, or, are fatal regardless of treatment.  So, rather than subject him to endless tests and treatments in scary machines in scary unfamiliar places, which required long car rides (he hated car rides more than anything else in the world - more than trips to the vet, more than dogs, even more than baths), I just focused on keeping him hydrated and treating his hepatic lipidosis.  That meant 5-10cc of meat baby food or watered down canned cat food at a time, for at least a full jar or can's worth a day.  Over the second week from his visit I got better at getting him to eat, until he would swallow most of what I gave him with minimal resistance.  When he started throwing up I gave him 1/2 a pepsid ac, which helped keep his food down.  

But then all of a sudden the abdominal swelling came back. With a vengeance, all within one day.
I had to go to work in the afternoon, and when I returned he had thrown up again in the bathroom where I had left him, went out to the living room, and had collapsed on the floor.  He was still breathing and alert.  I gave him his dose of diuretic, which was supposed to help keep his fluids where they belonged (in his blood, not his abdomen).  He tried to walk but he really couldn't.  He wanted to go outside, so I carried him to his favorite spot* and let him lie there a few minutes before we went inside because it was cold.  

*(His whole life he has picked a new favorite spot every month or two)

I read more about his symptoms - I had been reading all week - and determined that, since it has come back again, it was more likely not to be one of the conditions that resolves itself with rest and a gentle diet and time.
It was more likely cancer or heart disease or organ failure.  

To find out which would likely require multiple biopsies and a CAT scan.  Despite the name, I knew he would hate being CAT scanned, along with all the rest.  And that would just be for a diagnosis.  Of all the things it was likely to be, the two categories would be: no treatment exists, or, with intensive and regular treatment, lifespan could be increased, on average, 6-12 months.

The quality of life of those 6-12 months would not be as they were before he got sick.
If he was still alive in the morning, I had to think about putting him down.  I put him in a corner, like he would always do when he didn't feel safe, and gave him something soft to lay on.  I pet him and talked to him and then I went to sleep.
Next morning he had managed to get out of the corner and move several feet, but he clearly could not get up.  For the first time since he had first gotten sick, he started crying.  The moment I came in the room, he lifted his head and looked right at me and told me he was feeling terrible and he wanted me to help him, so I told him we would go to the vet and get him drained and hydrated again. 

Even though I knew he wasn't likely to survive whatever he had, at the very least I wanted him to feel better before he left the world. I don't know why.  It just seemed better.  When I put him in his carrier he stopped crying.  I suspect he understood that a trip to the vet was to help him.  We went first thing in the morning.  I got the call about 2pm.  He had clung to life longer than a lot of other cats with his symptoms, but they caught up to him.  He may have had pancreatitis or intestinal lymphoma.  In either case, it affects cats worse than humans, and there are limited to no treatment options.  There is some solace in that he was only in real pain the very last day.

He was a very good little cat.  Hopefully there is a kitty heaven, because he would definitely get in.  He was my best non-human friend, and one of my best friends of any specie.
Its only been a couple hours, but I miss him already.

Cats Were Not Very Well Designed

Whoever built cats, be it God or evolution, some sort of super intelligent space aliens or the ancient Egyptians, they made a pretty serious and, frankly, stupid, design flaw.


If for whatever reason a cat goes just a few days without eating, like all animals, they begin to metabolize their fat reserves for energy.  Like all animals, this fat metabolization (along with many other tasks) is the job of the liver.

But, unlike every single other animal, a cat's liver is actually damaged by the process of metabolizing more than a tiny amount of fat at a time.

And just what symptoms does that type of liver damage cause?  Why nausea, of course!  Which in turn leads to anorexia.  Which in turn leads to not eating.  Which in turn leads to the body needing to burn more fat.  Which in turn damages the liver further.  Which in turn leads to more severe anorexia...

So, even if the original cause of the problem is no longer an issue, this cycle leads to death.

Its called Hepatic Lipidosis, and it can be triggered in as little as 3 DAYS without food.

Often times it is triggered by some other disease or medical condition, but it can also be triggered by stress, (from a move, or a new cat roommate, for example), or by a new brand of food.  If they are wild, perhaps there just aren't any mice or birds around to catch for a few days in a row.

The treatment is regular food.  But since they have no appetite, a cat's human has to manually feed them.
And so the little Chairman gets a syringe-full or two of watered down canned food squirted into his mouth every hour or so, for at least the next couple weeks, or until whenever he decides to start eating again on his own.

Your Actions are (part of) Causing that Traffic Jam You're Stuck in*

*In the morning and evening of most large American cities (especially those surrounded by plenty of suburb), when everyone is driving their cars to their 9-5 jobs, there are simply too many vehicles on the highway for the lane capacity.  You get on the highway at the nearest entrance, and proceed to average 15mph the entire distance from your suburban home to the downtown city center where you work, frequently coming to a complete stop, never going more than 25mph at the most.

In that situation, traffic is going to go slow, no matter what.

That isn't the type of traffic jam I'm talking about.

There is also another type of traffic back up.  The kind that happens in moderate traffic.  Everyone slows down, sometimes even to a complete stop, and then a few hundred feet later, you are moving again at 50, 60, 70mph, as if nothing happened.

Sometimes this happens because there is the aftermath of a crash in the shoulder, or even across the divider on the opposite shoulder of the oncoming lane, and all the drivers feel it is very important for them to take a good look at it, because humans are just like that.  Other times its because someone is getting a traffic ticket, and, even though the cop is clearly busy at the moment, people imagine they are more likely to be caught speeding if the can see a police car.

But most often, these slow downs happen for no apparent reason at all.  You get to the front of it, and cars are accelerating just as suddenly as they slowed down.

Sometimes traffic pulses like this, fast - slow - fast - slow - fast - slow for miles.  In some places, not quite as dense as in the first example above, the daily commute does this pulse jam every single day.

When you find yourself in this situation, the choices you make can either make it better, or they can make it worse.  If you are reading this, there is a decent chance you are one of the few who makes it better already - but if you are like most people, there is a much better chance you are making it worse. 

In fact, if everyone realized what I'm about to explain, and acted appropriately, those slowdowns would never happen in the first place, but, of course, most people don't know any better, so its hard to hold it against them.

At least once you have finished reading this, there will be one more person who understands whats going on, and makes it better instead of worse.

The easiest way to understand how individual actions make the backup better or worse is with an analogy.

Lets say you are in a crowd, and for some reason everyone wants to go through a doorway as quickly as possible (the iconic burning theater, perhaps, or maybe just a Black Friday sale).

Each individual is acting as an independent free agent, and each wants their own personal speed to be as fast as possible.

What happens? 

Everyone rushes the door, and they get stuck on each other as they try to squeeze through all at once.  In extreme cases people get trampled, occasionally fatally, but even if everyone stays on their feet, the chaos amplifies the bottleneck and it takes an even longer time for everyone to get through.



Now consider an equally large crowd, but imagine they consist of a highly trained military company.  When the fire alarm goes off, instead of each individual going straight for the door and attempting to shove each other out of the way, they all immediately form a single file line down the center of the room, each taking their place based on where they started, no one "cuts in line", everyone moves at a quick but controlled pace and never any faster than the person in front of them.

In the second scenario the very last person to go through the door gets through faster than the middle person in the free-for-all scenario.

What has changed?  Each individual is moving a little bit slower, they all give each other a little more space, and no one runs around to the edge of the door to try to squeeze in from the side.  The exact things that people acting as individuals do to try to optimize their own individual escape time are what cause them to get stuck on each other and, paradoxically, means they and everyone else gets out slower.

Researchers have looked at this phenomenon of "more haste, less speed":

The desire for speed overwhelms the desire to avoid collision and the blob people jam up against one another -- just as salt can jam the shaker even though the hole is bigger than the largest grain. The room takes longer to empty even though everyone tries to move faster -- handfuls of people escape in bursts between clogging events.

http://www.nature.com/news/2000/000928/full/news000928-9.html

You can see something analogous on the highways everyday.  Drivers attempt to go as fast as possible at all times, even when there are other cars ahead of them.   Many tend to drive as close as possible to the car ahead, much closer than the recommended 2-3 second rule from drivers-ed class.  When coming up on a line of stopped cars ahead, they will keep a foot on the accelerator as long as they possibly can before hitting the brakes hard just in time to prevent impact.  And any time one lane is temporarily going slightly faster than the one they are in, they pull into it to gain one or two car lengths over those around them. 

The overly aggressive drivers are obvious.

But almost everyone contributes, if to a lesser extent, to the same general phenomenon. 
Say every car is as close as is safe to the car ahead, in every lane, and everyone is moving at a constant rate.  Now what happens if one car wants to change lanes?  Since the cars are all as close as can be already, there is no possible way that the car can change lanes smoothly, because someone is going to have to slow to let them in, and they will have to slow to make the merge.  Now the following cars in both lanes have to brake.  And since the cars behind them were already as close as possible to them, those cars also have to brake.  And since the cars behind them... you get the idea... the stopped cars now travels back through the traffic in a wave. 

Now the same scenario - except the drivers are self-regulating like our military company escaping the burning theater: each car leaves a gap from the car ahead of them large enough that another car can safely merge in front of them.

Now when a car inevitably needs to change lanes, they can do so without slowing down, and without making the car behind them slow down.  They and the car behind them will want to reopen the gap that they just filled, but this can be done gradually over time, with only minor adjustments to speed, and the wave of stopped cars never occurs.

Traffic engineers can control individual driver behavior by putting in deliberate bottlenecks, called metering lights - the kind found at toll plazas and some on-ramps, where everyone is supposed to wait just a couple seconds before they merge with traffic.  Everyone ends up on the highway, but that moment of waiting forces everyone to space themselves out, and even though you had to wait, it is more than made up for by higher average speeds for everyone - including you. 

Sometimes you can even see a similar effect from lane closures or rubbernecking - a section of highway that is moderately backed-up everyday, but on one occasion has a lane closed for construction or due to an accident, if its near the beginning of your trip, occasionally has you get to your destination faster than usual.  As the cars slow down for the bottleneck, and then reach the end and start to accelerate one at a time, they spread themselves out, just like a metering light would have done. 

An identical effect is seen with the crowd of pedestrians trying to get through a doorway; putting an obstacle in the way of the exit actually makes the crowd get though it faster.

Most fire codes require that the pathway to an emergency exit be kept wide open, but according to researchers in Japan, placing an obstruction next to an exit may actually help crowds of people to get out of a room more efficiently.

Researchers found that when people bottleneck near an exit, they start to jostle each other for position. The jostling acts much like friction, slowing down the rate at which people can exit. Introducing a strategically-placed obstacle near the exit can reduce the number of people pushing for the exit, speeding up the rate at which people can pass through.

"We found that we can evacuate faster if we put an obstacle at the suitable position in front of the exit," said Daichi Yanagisawa, who lead the study from the University of Tokyo in Japan.

http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2009/08/for-quick-exit-just-block-fire-door.html

Even without metering lights, though, you can make a conscious choice to help traffic you are in move more smoothly.

Pay attention to the road ahead.  If you see an ocean of brake lights up ahead, take your foot off the accelerator.  There is no point in racing to be the first to come to a stop.  Resist the urge to change lanes every time one appears to be going slightly faster, unless you have enough space that you can do it without anyone having to slow down for you. Leave a big enough gap between you and the car ahead of you that someone else could safely merge in front of you without you having to slow down.  That applies at any speed, from stop and crawl to over the posted limit** - not only will it smooth out traffic flow, it will also reduce your chances of being involved in a collision, not to mention reduce other people's road rage.  No one can cut you off if you choose to slow down and let them in.

That means people will get it front of you.

And that's ok.

At as slow as 10mph, one car length costs you all of one second.  At 35 it costs you one third of one second.  Big freggin deal!  Let 50 cars get in front of you on a trip with a 45mph average speed, and you get where you are going all of 30 seconds later than you would have had you made sure to be the one to go first.

Not only have you made 50 people a little happier, but you have helped traffic flow a little better for all the people behind you, all the way back down the highway.

Better still, when you are coming up to one of those pointless braking waves, and you start slowing down well in advance, often times it will have completely cleared itself up by the time you get to where it was.  Which means by simply taking your foot off the accelerator, you never have to brake at all.  By avoiding coming to a complete stop, your average speed ends up being higher!  Its quite like timing traffic lights - if you try to go faster than the timed lights are designed for, you have to stop for the red, and someone driving at the speed limit will pass you just as it turns green again while you are accelerating from a stand still.

And if driving with less pointless starting and stopping, less stress, and helping to clear up traffic jams wasn't enough, this also happens to be the best way to minimize fuel when driving in traffic, so you save cash too, along with the environment and America's energy independence. 

Next time you are driving, think about this essay.  When someone exits in front of you, leaving a huge gap between you and the next car, don't rush to catch up.  When you are entering the highway, and the on-ramp is clear but the merging lane is slow, don't stay on the on-ramp until the very last second and then cross over the solid white line in an attempt to pass as many other cars as possible.  You are saving yourself a negligible amount of time, probably less than a second, but you are creating a braking wave that will snarl the traffic behind you potentially for miles.  Think about the orderly single file line, and how much faster everyone exits the building.  Everyone else is going to drive how they are going to drive, but at least you won't be making it worse.  And who knows, if enough of us start doing it, a few others might just take notice, and sooner or later stop and go traffic waves will simply cease to exist.

Trespassing in the Commune

I'm not much of one for ideology or party lines.

If I see an error in someone's thinking, I'm just as likely to mention it if I agree with their overall point as if I don't.  Trying to get people to see all sides of things tends to put me in the roll of Devil's Advocate, and so I have been accused of being a capitalist by communists, a communist by capitalists, a fan of Ayn Rand (HA!) by anarchists.

A few years ago I wrote some about illegal immigration:

http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2012/02/viii-in-which-national-origin-is.html

http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2012/05/23-on-immigration.html
http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2012/05/27-join-california-resistance.html

http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2006/12/two-immigration-articles-in-week.html

The Common Thread

I was at a party yesterday, and I was talking about who knows what, and, I guess maybe because I have an "educated" accent, or whatever, I really have no idea why, she commented that she was surprised I hadn't gone into some field of science.

And I mentioned that I had been expecting to in high school, I had interned in  microbiology and biotech labs, focused mainly on science classes in high school and college, got associate degrees in biology and earth science - but then, by random acts of fate, I had ended up doing semi-skilled manual labor which afforded me not only decent money, but an extremely flexible schedule and the ability to be my own boss. 
I said I still satiated that side of my mind with plenty of reading, and occasional writing.

She asked where I wrote, whether it was just for myself - basically just this blog, and given the size of it's readership, yeah, pretty much just for myself.
and what topics I wrote about, and I tried to think of all the various things I've covered.

She asked what they all have in common.

Nothing really, other than I find them interesting.  And I find of lot of things interesting.  The world is a vast and complicated place.  reality is fascinating.  I really can not comprehend how so many people can willingly specialize, focus on just one area of human knowledge, when there is just so much else out there.  I'm much more interested in understanding a little about everything than everything about a little.

So, yeah, my blog has no theme.
Probably why I will never be able to generate any significant readership.  People subscribe to stuff that focuses on what interests them, and mine doesn't focus on anything.

She insisted that there must be some angle where a common theme could be found.  She said that in what she did, there were always commonalities emerging, even when they weren't obvious at first.

We kept talking more, I elaborated slightly on a few posts, she suggested that maybe challenging preconceptions might  be a consistent thing, and then I realized, duh! it's right there in the header of the blog.



Nothing inspires me to write - to really write, something in depth and well thought out, with perhaps hours of research and weeks of drafting in my head - like something where I find millions of people hold a particular piece of "common wisdom" which just happens to be completely wrong.


But I learned something recently:
People are stubborn. 
I mean, like, really stubborn.

No surprise, right, but the extent of it is.

Its not just rejecting arguments that you don't already agree with.  We humans have a tendency, even in the face of independent evidence or clear factual data, to believe our wrong beliefs EVEN HARDER when they are challenged.

That certainly isn't encouraging in terms of my chances of changing anyone's mind about anything!

Therefore, perhaps I should make this article:

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/06/10/the-backfire-effect/

mandatory reading before you can read any of the more potentially controversial things I've written.
Except of course that there is no way for me to enforce it.

Well, read it anyway.  And be aware of it, not just when you're reading what I write, but all the time, in day-to-day life, and whenever you argue with anyone.  You can go a long way to overriding your own cognitive biases, if only you are aware of them.  You will make yourself smarter, and by so doing, be able to make your own life better in every way, forever.

You may still disagree with me on all sorts of stuff.  But, at least if you approach it with a truly open mind, you will disagree for the right reasons.