Rick Kinnaird

Blake,

I don’t know if you know the story of what I’m calling “Jeff and the Drink” so I thought Id write it down.

Come to think of it, I doubt Jeff Cain knows it all.

BTW I have the triple stack of Jeff’s minature kites. Very cool.

Okay. so here goes.

We are flying out of Seattle, switching through Denver. Me, Laurie Dutton, Meg Albers, and Jeff are all on the flight leaving out of Denver. Meg has all kinds of stomach issues and took some medicine and is going down fast. I need to get her on the plane before she conks out. I tell the stewardess at the gate that my wife is pregnant and not feeling well. We get right on the plane. Meg falls asleep on my shoulder.

The drink cart comes by. I want a glass of wine. Unfortunately, my wallet is in my pocket on the side Meg is sleeping on. I look over my shoulder and see Jeff about three rows back next to the window. 

I say to the stewardess, “See that guy, three rows back? Next to the window? He’ll pay for my drink.”

Twenty seconds later I hear Jeff yell, “What?”

Before I can turn back in my seat the stewardess is kneeling beside my seat, with a very distressed look on her face, “That man,” she exclaimed, “Says he doesn’t know you.”

I, in a very calm, voice said, “That’s gratitude for you. After all I’ve done for him.”

“When is the baby due?”

“Baby?” I had to quickly remember that I had used that excuse to get Meg on the plane. Then try to calculate nine months out. “Oh, we just learned not for another eight and a half months.

“Would it be okay if I pay you once she wakes up? My money is in the pocket next to her.”

I got the approving nod, like we’re all helping to bring a new life into the world or some sort of mommy female conspiracy thing.

And that is the story of Jeff and the drink.

After all I’ve done for him. He’s so cheap.

I DECIDED TO WASH THE BATHROOM WINDow (damn caps lock)

I got a jug at HD that I could squirt down the outside and as long as I did that window I might as well do the rest on that side

Then I went around the corner and did the Ocean room windows and then the LR up to the slider.

Having discovered the screen upstairs and realizing it was filthy – just because it hadn’t been washed in 30 or 40 years I did it too

and as long as I was doing it I might as well do the others and if I put them down on the deck where the metal table usually sits that had mildew spots underneath maybe I could get rid of the mildew

And as long as the screens were out I might as well wash the insides of the windows and then the little windows on the doors to the garage and the inside of the window out to the back deck (oh yes I did that window and the kitchen window and the breezeway doors when I had the squirter bottle that I could use on the outside.

And then I discovered that my squirting off of the screens really didn’t get them clean so I had to wipe them down, both sides, and squirt them off, and I discovered some mildew cutter in the garage which did a better job on the mildew on the deck then my squirting the screens off there, and as long as I had the cutter out I might as well do the back stairs off the triangular deck.

And now I’ve got the screens back in and the red sofa pushed back in place and everything put away. 

So I can check off “Wash Window in new bathroom”

Geez, why did such a simple job take all day?

Friday, May 17, 2024

It is being reported that in the case of Donald Trump the defense landed some blows on the testimony of Michael Cohen. What exactly did they do?

Well, this is major. They showed that in a ninety second phone call from eight years ago with Donald Trump or his body guard that what he, Cohen, says the conversation was about might not be correct. Wow. Spectacular. Oh and this the defense asserts shows that Cohen is, or was, a liar. Really?

Let’s consider that Cohen worked for Trump for ten years and his job was to lie for the boss and to cover up things, ie to be a bully. So is he, or was he a liar? Yes. That was his job.

This stunning revelation was what the defense uncovered in hours and hours of cross examination.

Did they mention any of the stuff that this case is really about? No.

The defense is being praised for their strategy of asking Cohen questions out of chronological order, which makes the case confusing and perhaps Cohen as a liar. This after the prosecution went through the same stuff in order. 

Like all of the cases against Trump, the evidence is clear. There really is no debate about what happened, what was done. It’s obvious. Is it criminal? Well, if you read the law and you look at the undisputed facts it’s obvious. And there are some who think he’s being hunted. There are members of Congress who have come to New York to do what Trump with his gag order can not do. Attack the judge and his family. 

Meanwhile, it has ben reported and shown that Justice Alito had flown a U.S. flag uoside down after the Jan 6th insurrection. This was and is a symbolic gesture to say “Stop the Steal.” What does Alito say? “Oh my wife did it.” and it was about a neighborly dispute. What BS. But this is what you get when these people are confronted. “My dog ate my homework.” 

or “Gosh, I didn’t think I had to report those 33 luxury vacations.” 

or “They are out to get me.” Yeah, they are. You broke the law. Not once, not twice but ninety times. And you aren’t even charged with the really bad stuff.

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Lots of folks know I like ancient places, and that I visit them.

They are kind enough to send me articles about these places.

This exposes me to things I might not have seen. Of course, a lot of it is stuff I already knew, but often presented in a slightly different way.

One of the things that I’ve seen are these reports that suggest they know “How the rocks were moved” or carved, or whatever. Some of these are absolutely fantastical.

The Sphinx has had its share of illustrations of secret compartments and staircases. To be fair, there is a cavity in the Sphinx. Mark Lerner, noted Egyptologist, has been inside it. He recounted how he had heard that during repairs to the Sphinx work crews had noted an opening near the back of the monument. He managed to find one of the older workmen who had been in the crew. The man stood at the back of the Sphinx, looking. Finally, he pointed to a stone and said, “that one.” They removed it and a few more and sure enough there was an opening in the limestone. A natural opening. That was it. Big enough to crawl inside and move to the end a few feet away. But that’s the end of the Sphinx and secret compartments and openings. There is no trap door on his head, or back.

Recently, I saw an article that claimed they knew how the Pyramids were built. The article said they had experimented with dragging large stones. They had use sand underneath them to make the job easier. The investigators then added some water to the sand and discovered that with just the right amount of water the friction was reduced and the stones were easier to drag. And that’s how the Pyramids were built! – they claimed.

I’m like, wait a sec. There are a few other details, like how did they get the stones up to the top 480 feet from the ground?

Yes. Maybe they dragged the blocks on ramps with sand as a lubricant and maybe they added some water, but that doesn’t explain how the pyramids were built, only how the stones might have been dragged.

We know they used sleds to move the stones because we have one. It was in the Cairo Museum, but last time I was there I couldn’t find it. It has probably been moved to the GEM (the new Grand Egyptian Museum).

But it looks a lot like this sled from LLBean, only bigger:

I’ve seen articles suggesting the limestone blocks were floated to a pool at the base of the Pyramids where they were carved to fit.  Problem: no pool has ever been found, and no pictures on walls, etc. have ever been discovered showing such a thing.

I’ve had a buddy that was asked to bring a large kite to see if it could pull a large block of stone. It did.

There are numerous books and articles suggesting various ways that could have been employed to move the stones: ramps, rollers, sleds, block and tackle, cranes.

The problem being that many of these are guesses and there is no evidence to support most of the claims.

It seems ramps and sleds were the main way the ancient Egyptians moved the blocks. There is evidence of ramps at the base of some pyramids. We know the ancient Egyptians were excellent rope makers because we have the ropes. We also have evidence that at quarries it seems they used a system of vertical poles to place ropes around to help leverage the blocks.

But all the other ideas? No. No evidence.

Then there are the Incas. How did they move the large stone blocks? How did they carve them? Etc. Etc. Etc. Typically, Saqsaywaman is mentioned because there are huge stones in place there. Archaeologists have discovered a roadway that runs to the site from below where the stones were quarried. The road has round stones placed at spaced intervals. Why? To reduce the friction when they dragged the stones. How did they carve the stones so precisely? We can see nubbins on the bottom of many stones, leading to the conclusion that the nubbins were used to wrap rope around o the could be carried on the shoulder of four men who help long poles attached to the ropes, much like a stretcher can be carried. It has been shown that the blocks could be held on a stand close to where they would be finally placed and the bottom and edge could be compared to the adjoining blocks and they could be shaped to match at this point in time. 

So, although we don’t know for sure you can be reasonably certain of the techniques involved.

For the best, ie most reasonable, theories on how the pyramids were built look up the papers and National Geographic video on Jean-Pierre Houdin, and History for Granite on YouTube. Both resources are terrific.

Jean-Pierre believes that a ramp built inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu was used to finish the top third. It would be easy to see if that is true. Yet, for reasons I cannot understand it hasn’t been done. A few years ago many people who are knowledgeable about such things said they no longer believed in the internal ramp theory as it is called. When I asked, “Why not?” or “How do you think it was done?” I received silence.

Archaeology is a weird and wonderful place for the mind to dance.

Saturday, May 11, 2024

I have a friend, He’s a lawyer. He reads my posts. On the documents case he wrote that if it was anyone but you-know-who they’d be in prison for a long time. and that the case is a slam dunk.

In the New York fraud case, the one currently being held. That case is a slam dunk as well. It’s not about the witnesses, it’s about the documents. From the signed checks by Trump to the written out plan of the crime by the Trump CFO. There’s a salacious component to this one as it involves adultery with a Playboy bunny and a woman who worked as an adult film actress. There’s no question as to what happened. The arguments of the defense are “it’s not a crime,” and “so what?”

In the case of the January 6th insurrection the pity there is he isn’t charged with the most egrigious crime, but once again it would be hard to deny that he isn’t guilty.

In fact, in every case and every time he actually – actually – has a judgement he loses.

He might be the biggest loser in our history. What is the current count on bankruptcies? Seven, I think. How about failed business ventures?  What about losing business ventures? (All of them? I’ve never heard of one that made a profit.)

And yet. and yet. He manages to get senators, congressmen, judges and regular people to bend over in both directions (front and back) to aid and abet him. Why is beyond me.

Like Starbucks coffee – I don’t get it.

Every Trump case that I can think of is never about guilt or innocence. The facts speak for themselves. He’s always guilty. The only question seems to be can he bully enough people to skirt the rules?