The Science Behind Second Hand Smoke

I would like to start out by saying that I am a non smoker and I do not like being in situations where the tobacco smoke hangs heavy in the air. I will also tell you that my mother and most of my brothers smoke, as does my son. I therefore am exposed to second hand smoke on occasion. I do not worry about it the way that the Surgeon General does. I suspect that if you know a little bit about statistics, you do not worry either.

The correlations between secondhand smoke and lung cancer are weak at best. The weaker the correlation, the more it is likely that a confounding variable is present. For example, smoking correlates strongly with income level. The richer you are, less you are likely to smoke. The poorer you are, however; the more likely you are to live near an industrial area near power plants, and other sources of pollution. A good statistician should be able to control for that, but it is impossible to control for variables that you don't know about.

Finally, the way the numbers are reported leaves me a little put off. Experts off say that breathing second hand smoke raises your chances of lung cancer by 30%. If we assume that they are correct, it sounds like there is a huge difference. It's only when you look at the incidence rate that you can tell. If my chances are one in ten million of getting lung cancer without ever breathing second hand smoke, then my chances are one in 7 million of getting lung cancer if I do breathe it. Both numbers are very small, and not that different.

So if you want to ban smoking because it is a nuisance, I say fine. If you want to ban it on the basis of its health risk, I have to ask why you aren't banning fine particulate carbon from diesel exhaust. It represents a far higher risk to the public health.

The water level in the Supreme Court's Basement

How does the water level in the Supreme Courts basement relate to a case they are currently hearing? The answer is carbon dioxide. Few people will argue that the weather keeps getting stranger and stranger. Few that is except perhaps oil company executives and power plant owners. Everyone else can see the trend. Storms are getting stronger, rain is getting heavier, and droughts are getting longer. This is as predicted by those pesky scientists who insist on the truth even after reading the official line from the Republican party.

Quite a few states enacted laws controlling carbon dioxide emissions in the face of the huge vacuum left by the Republicans in power. A case is now being heard by the Supreme Court as to whether states can legally do it. Mother Nature may have filed in favor of the states. There is a stalled front allowing large quantities of rain to be dumped on the Washington, D. C. area. In addition, a very slow moving low is crawling up the coast. Parts of Washington are under water now, and there is a pretty good chance that there will be more.

Is this the result of global warming? It's very hard to say. I heard a weathercaster describe this as a once in a century rainfall. Oddly enough, they seem to come once every four or five years now. Is the water in the Supreme Court's basement the result of global warming which is the result of increased levels of carbon dioxide? Maybe it's time to start listening to those pesky scientists.

Congressional Action

I am so glad to hear that Congress will yet again try to make an amendment to the Constitution that protects the American flag. It is much more important to protect a symbol of America than actually take steps to protect America. Perhaps while they are at it, they could extend an amendment to protect bald eagles, and enact a bill that prohibits Yankee Doodle being sung in Spanish. Maybe they should combine all the silly issues and introduce a bill that bars gay married Mexican men from emigrating to the United States for the express purpose of singing the national anthem in Spanish while burning the American flag.

Last week the Republicans ridiculed the Democrats bill to start removing troops from Iraq so that they could announce that they are removing troops this week. Last week the Dems were being soft on the insurgency. This week, the Republicans are much more what? Macho when they talk about removing troops.

I know what this inane behavior is about. It's all positioning for the upcoming midterm elections. I truly hope that voters will see it for what it is, and they vote their pocketbooks. Or at least sit down and figure out if they are happy with the direction of America. These red herring issues are silly and insulting. If we are stupid enough to vote on the basis of these issues, then I guess we are stupid enough.

Home Away from Home

It's day seven of this particular stay in New Orleans. My wife who is down the weekend is sleeping in the hotel room. She is exhausted after visiting two plantation houses, San Francisco and Destrehan, and a late lunch eating boiled crab. Yesterday, we went to New Orleans and walked the river walk, visited Jackson Square, ate deep fried seafood at a small restaurant on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, watched alligators in a bayou, ate at the Cafe du Monde, and walked down Bourbon Street. Tomorrow we head north to a town on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain to spend the day antiquing. She goes home on Monday, and I will spend the rest of the week here. Our Odessey around south Louisana may not equal Homer's tale, but it has been exciting enough for us.

The day has been hot. This is no big surprize since this is New Orleans and this is the summer. The rest of the week looks to be equally hot. Again no surprize. What is surprizing is how poorly my wife is adapting to it. It seems to sap her in a way that is a little scary. I do not believe that she could live in a climate like this without some serious work on getting into better shape. I am not a poster child for fitness in late middle age, but there seems to be a difference between me and her. The heat almost seems dangerous for her. It's like her body has lost the ability to adapt to high temperatures. The nice thing is that I will be able to send her back to Michigan in a couple of days and this will no longer be a problem.

I sense that she and I are changing as we grow older, and I am not sure that we are going in the same direction. It is not a crisis. I just get the feeling that our spheres of interest do not overlap in the way that they once did. Perhaps these extended stays away from home are not the best thing.

Odyessus was able to be gone for twenty years. When he came back, everything was cool between him and Penelope. Why am I having problems with being gone 5 day per week? Maybe sacking Troy is more glamorous than accounting. Maybe killing 50 suitors is more exciting than cutting the lawn when you get back.

Woodworking and Being 900 Miles from Home

I just logged onto my email account and found out that the hinges for my bookcase had been shipped. It jarred me for a second. I pulled me away from my professional life and into my private life. So here I'm sitting now, missing home and wondering how on earth I've gotten myself into the situation where the one thing that makes me happy when I am doing it is so remote from my work a day life.

New Orleans is a wonderful place to work. It truly is a whirl of interesting people, places, foods, and cultures. It is, however, 900 miles from home. Home may be Michigan with its 9 months of crappy weather, and its gruff people, but still, it is my home and I miss it.

I probably should just suck it up and get on with it. One day this assignment will be over and I probably will miss it. Still, I would sure like to work tonight for a hour or two in my woodshop!

Custom Bookcases

I'm getting tired of the bookcases. It's not the fact that the work seems to drag on. No the problem is far more insidious than that. The lady that I live with keeps coming in and wanting to change the design as I go along. Right now, she is not happy with the color of the bookcases. They are poplar with cherry stain on them. The reason why I am using that combination is that is what was used for the mouldings throughout the house. Today she decided that it is just not red enough.

When I go into the house, I see the mouldings as quite brown. She in turn points to a door made from some wood that I can't quite identify and says that she thought it would be this color. The color is truly redder than the mouldings, but it is not a color that I would be able to get with stain on poplar. What can I do? I will not work with sealer stain. I hate the stuff. I can never get it on evenly and when I do, it never looks like anything that I would be proud of. I guess I could try a paste stain.

The problem is that I have already remade a large portion of this project, and I am getting just a little tired of it. I now have the uprights ready to make a bookcase for my son and for my daugher. This is a product of the last design change. If there are too many more design changes, I think I will just donate the whole thing to my daughter. I'm sure that she would love it and probably be happy that I had made it for her. The other option would be to make a nice camp fire with it and relax by its glow.