Jeff's Blog

It is difficult to know what to believe anymore.   For example, you may have seen this type of thing on Facebook:  Bill Gates has something to do with the Coronavirus, and is going to include a "chip' in mandatory vaccines (which he has patents on) and will make a ton of money from it. People start to think:  Hmmm that kind of makes sense. Bill Gates - patents - sure that fits... I'll bet he has a bunch of them.   Windows is evil, it took over the world and we all suffer with blue screens and didn't Microsoft get hauled into court and found guilty of being a monopoly? - yep, Gates is probably evil too.   Everyone suspects that billionaires like Gates are not only malicious but greedy too and they always want more money.  Bill Gates is an investor in that Biosecurity Level 4 virology lab over in Wuhan, isn't that true? Gates is always talking about viruses and vaccines. He is NOT a microbiologist but IS a microcomputer specialist. That makes n...

How can we get together and play music during this quarantine? Since we can't jam in person, why can't we just set up a virtual jam session on the Zoom video conferencing system and pick while in our homes, safe and sound?    Figure 1: Pre-Covid Jamming (that's me in the cool shirt with my back to the camera) OK, let's see if that is possible. Imagine a hypothetical Zoom call between me and my guitar-playing friend Jerry (who lives 38 miles away).  The first thing you might do to evaluate this question is to calculate how much delay that the electrical connection will cause, to see if this will even work.  If the delay is too long, we'll never be able to sync our music with each other: The electronic signal will travel at about 90% of the speed of light ( reference 1 ) - that is about 167,000 miles per second.  So, according to my calculations, it will only take 0.23 milliseconds for my mandolin note to reach Jerry, 38 miles away, thru the wire.    Jus...

There is a war going on. Each side is trying to kill the other side. Millions of lives are at stake.  The dead and dying are being continually carried off the battlefield, and fresh new recruits are taking their place.   Nobody knows how long this battle has been going on, but it is at least 1.5 billion years old and it perhaps extends back to the beginning of life itself, about 3.4 billion years ago ( reference 1 ).  And just like in any arms race, each time one side invents a new way to invade, the other side invents a way to counter it.  When you get invention after invention of new types of weapons by the attacker, you will also get invention of new, innovative defenses against those weapons by the defender. These defenses get incorporated and passed down and remembered over billions of years of battling. You can expect to see incredible complexity as a result.  And that is, indeed, what you get when you study the human immune system. This age-old battl...

I read a post on Facebook recently that suggested that wearing a mask was akin to trying to stop a mosquito with a chain link fence.  It is a pretty apt analogy, especially when you look at the relative sizes of viruses and mask pore sizes: Typical Coronavirus size  ~ 0.125 microns ( reference 1 ) Size of pores in a surgical mask = 80-500 microns ( reference 2 ) So the virus is approximately 1000 times smaller than the holes in the mask!  How, then, can the mask possibly stop the transmission of a virus and keep us all safe? Evidence suggests that masks are, indeed, effective.  Further, state governments are recommending them and businesses such as supermarkets are requiring them, so what gives?  Is this foolish or a good idea? It turns out that the answer to this seemingly simple problem is a little bit more complex than meets the eye.  We need to examine two different aspects of the problem in detail:  First, we will look at the structure of the viru...

Welcome to my blog.   I am going to use these pages to publish information and commentary on a broad range of topics.  Likely subjects will include bluegrass music, science, politics, and maybe even cooking, as well current events such as the Coronavirus.  The intent is to offer my point of view on topics that go beyond what is practical to post on social media. (All opinions expressed are my own.) I will always encourage discussion, especially on viewpoints that differ from mine.  I'll do my best to keep the tone positive and respectful, and I'll expect the same from anybody who adds comments. Here are a few things you ought to know about me in the spirit of full disclosure: I'm a retired Microsoft exec who has spent 33 years in consumer electronics and computer hardware development and manufacturing, including stints at IBM, NCR and Intel.  My wife and I have lived in three of the four corners of this country, including Florida, South Carolina, Washington...