Boomer News

Who will be capable of leading a hot, flat, crowded world?

I don’t know, but I sure don’t want to be singing “Bring on the clowns” after the upcoming elections. I haven’t read Thomas Friedman’s book yet, but I hope he is saying that our president, our congressman and our CEO’s must surround themselves … and listen to … those smart devils that know the technical details of the job. Every industrial nation now … absolutely needs … leaders with technical expertise at or near the top.

During the 40s and 50s when I began my career, engineers were at the top of most major corporations. Little by little the technical people were replaced at the top by accountants, lawyers, and financial wizards. That’s my observation, which I can’t support with data kids. It’s also my observation that the scientific community has had only a minor role in the Bush administration.*

*I remind you kids that grandpa is not a Republican and not a Democrat … grandpa believes in “balanceology”. This is the most important election in my life time of almost 78 years. We need  people  who understand the science and technology of their profession. We need these people to help lead us in this “Flat, Hot, and Crowded World” in which we live.

Happy 17th Birthday Chiara 10-9-2008

Like you, I was still a junior in High School at age 17. In the book I wrote, Generation to Generation, the Part I sections were about my stories at various ages from 3 to 27. In chapter 16 Part I are some stories when I was 16 to 18 years old. This section was entitled “Jack Armstrong the all American Boy”. Ask your mom for the book I wrote and go to Chapter 16 Part I to see why my friends called me Jack Armstrong the All American boy. You might find it amusing and interesting how things were back in the 1940s when I was 17.

Your mom tells me you are starting to learn calculus. I wasn’t introduced to calculus until the end of the senior year. I was not proficient in calculus and some how made it through my engineering career without using it very often. I may go back to my old calculus book and see if I can achieve some improved level of skill. Maybe you can help me out. There are a lot of formulas to generate if we are going to try to prove elements of our “Nested Universes” concept in my blog.

If you need help with the properties of the elements in the periodic table, I worked with over 50 of them during my career.

Have a wonderful day on your 17th birthday Chiara!

The Boomer News started in 1941

The name of our blog is the Boomer News. The newspaper, the Boomer News, was created in 1941 by your grandpa for his 5th grade class mates. The one-page newspaper was circulated amongst the thirty children in our 5th grade class. I can’t remember why I called the newspaper The Boomer News. When I started this blog a little over two years ago, it seemed appropriate to call the blog by the same name. Now the Boomer news is being written and circulated amongst our eleven grandchildren.

Two years ago if you went to Google search and typed in Boomer News we were right there at the top of the 1st page. Now with babyboomernews, boomergenerationnews, & babyboomerblog we are on the 2nd page of listings under “Boomer News”. We have some legitimacy in that 4 of our 5 children are classified as “Baby Boomers”. Your grandma & grandpa are labeled the “Silent Generation”. The oldest six of our grandchildren were born in the period called the “Y” Generation.  As far as I know the younger five grand-kids have not been given a name yet. 

We now have 11 blog categories. Perhaps we should add “trivia” as our 12th category?

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Why didn’t they show us the TED spread?

Almost all the financial reporters and pundants agree that the credit crunch message done poorly and was lost in the bail out of Wall Street message. The afternoon the House failed to pass the bill, I watched the plunge in the stock market as the media financial reporters and annalist tried to explain what was happening. They didn’t seem to be able to come up with a credit crunch chart.

The TED spread is an indicator of credit risk. This is because U.S. Ti-Bills are considered risk free while the LIBOR rate reflects the credit risk of lending by commercial banks.  As the TED spread increases, the risk of default increases. Kids, this is a good opportunity to learn some economics. Go to the Internet and find a TED spread chart. Increase risk spiked upward in 3rd quarter of 2007! It just hit a maximum value of 3.00 at the end of September! Wall Street is the ultimate in graphs, charts and predictions. Will the Financial TV analyst bring out the TED spread chart tomorrow when the House votes again? Probably not.

Grandpa’s soap box hobby is pushing for a TV station that uses charts and graphs to project serious unsustainable issues in the U.S. and around the world. A public TV station run by unbaised people who subscribe to using the scientific method of communicationg data. 

The general public understands the need for the financial data and projections and get glued to the TV for days watching the graphics of hurricane projections. As far as I know there are no TV stations dedicated to projection the great unsustainable problems of the world. In this rapidly changing world where we can’t wait for a crisis to occur before talking about fixing it … we need for someone to come up with the a TV station that is dedicated to providing graphs, charts and projections on the important issues .

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Do you talk to your body parts and sub conscious brain?

Kids, the first thing I do in the morning when me feet hit the floor is to just say “Thanks”. I guess it’s because I am really enjoying my stay here on our beautiful blue planet and I’m thankful for each new day that I can be here on mother Earth. This is due in part because I’m am getting old and the recognition that my stay on Earth is getting short.

When I get up I also talk to my body parts. “How are all you guys doing this morning?” You see when I was young and busy with my career and family, I didn’t seem to have enough time to pay attention to my body parts and my overall health. People are more aware of “body & mind” these days. I am planning to watch a new TV program on the Science Channel that is on the mind and body and is entitled; “Humanology”. The amazing 3D MRI imaging of what lies below our skin makes it easier for us to visualize our body parts and therefore makes it easier for us appreciate our body parts and what they are doing to keep us functioning everyday.

The mysteries of our conscious mind is as difficult to understand as the mysteries of universe. Grandpa is considering consciously talking to my subconscious mind. VJ Singh, the golfer, was having troubles putting earlier this year. VJ said he was going to talk to his sub conscious mind and simply say every day: “I’m a good putter”. His putting improved and he won two tour championships and won the 10 million dollar Fed Ex cup yesterday. 

Grandpa is not suggesting something new. From “Positive Thinking” to “Change your Brain, Change your Life” its all about talking to your subconscious mind. If your body parts could talk they’d say; “Look we know how difficult it is for you to stay on track. Just really work hard at being moderate and balanced with everything you do that affects us.”

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Have we found the source of the dark energy?

The answer  kids is … we don’t know. Our nested universe concept says the dark energy of our universe is caused by the gravitational variations of the black hole of a parent universe in which our universe resides.

The answer to anything in the cosmos that is beyond are ability to see or measure is always … we don’t know. But, in our case there are things we can learn by: 

• Observing correlations between the accretion ring distance to event horizon diameter and the black hole spin rate. (Gravitational pull at the event horizon).
• During the dormant phase of a black hole, the accretion ring is backed away from the event horizon and the spin rate at a minimum? (Gravitational pull is at a minimum?)
• During the active phase of a black hole, the accretion ring moves into the black hole event horizon and the spin rate at a maximum? (Gravitational pull is at a maximum?)

In our Nested Universes concept, we suggest the rate of expansion of our universe would increase as the black hole began to spin faster from it’s minimum dormant phase spin rate.

Perhaps six months from now, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope will be getting interesting data about the activity around black hole event horizons. Is the gravitational pull of the black hole sinusoudal? A universe in a black hole would sense a net repulsive force as the black hole went from the minimum spin rate of the dormant phase toward the maximum spin rate of the active phase. Voila … the source of the dark energy we are looking to find! Well anyway, it’s a thought kids.

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The Black Hole Singularity Becomes a Big Bang Singularity

Well kids, in our Nested Universes concept we suggest the material sucked into a black hole piles up at the Planck minimum distance, with no place to go, eventually has enough energy to make the leap from being a black hole singularity into being a big bang singularity … Voila the big bang!! [refer to our October 20Th 2007 blog]. Well, kids an article by Martin Bojowald in the October 2008 Scientific American magazine says; “As you pack energy into a volume of space, the wavelength of particles carrying this energy shrinks and eventually approaches Planck minimum distance. Space literally runs out of room. If you try to pack more energy, space will push it back out. It will appear that gravity generated by the region has turned from an attractive force into a repulsive force.”  Voila, the big bang!

Kids, our Nested Universes concept is beginning to look more reasonable. In our next blog we will we revisit our thoughts on the source of our universes dark energy.

We want to be entertained … not informed

How can you make the majority of Americans interested in subjects like; “U.S. endless growth is unsustainable”, (columnist Neal Peirce), or the “U.S. is going broke” (columnist David Broder). Most people want to be entertained and don’t read the editorial columns in the papers or watch documentary programs on TV. The newspaper editorial readership is small and TV documentary ratings are low.

Celebrities and politicians are aware that they need to entertain in order to get the attention of the majority of the American public. So how do we make the great important issues of the 21st century to be entertaining as well as informative? I would guess that Money, Sex, Power, and Tragedy are some of the sensational elements that are needed to keep the public’s attention.

It took 4 dollars per gallon gas to get people aware of our woeful energy policy the past 40 years and it took Al Gore’s name and movie entertainment to inform the U.S. public of the dangers of global warming. As soon as the general public gets on board on an issue, the politicians will know when it’s time to change horses and jump on the band wagon that has gotten the public’s attention.

It’s hard to sell factual graphical data to politicians and media people who are “verbal people”.  however, It can be done. Since Katrina, the media and the general public follow the graphical presentation of hurricanes from way out in the Atlantic until they strike land. The past 3 hurricanes have had the public watching graphical presentations of weather data for over a month.

If you want to see some really extraordinary graphics go to http://blow.blogs.nytimes. (In the archive list click on Hans Rosling for an amazing statistical presentation). Even Hillary, who doesn’t care for Ross Perot’s charts, might see that statistical presentations don’t have to be boring.

Send me your comments kids.  

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The Hadron Collider & Glast Telescope & our Nested Universe

On Cosmology : The Fermi Gamma-ray Space telescope has started mapping gamma ray activity in the universe. The Hadron Collider has been successfully turned on. Well kids, with these two measuring tools we may determine if our Nested Universe concept makes any sense at all.

We are all made of star dust kids. Stars are the ultimate energy source in our universe which generate light energy and atomic matter. Our universe is only 5% atomic matter. The rest of the our universe is dark matter (~20%) and dark energy (~75%). Our nested universe concept suggests that the repulsive force that holds the halo of dark matter in place, which in turn holds the galaxies in place, comes from our parent universe. (Kids, go back and review our Nested Universe concept in this blogs archive October 20Th 2007).

Our universe exists in a black hole during the dormant phase. This is the period of least suction when the accretion ring has pulled away from the event horizon. The degree of suction by the black hole is sinusoidal. During maximum suction the accretion ring is pulled into the event horizon. This is the black hole’s most active phase. 

The Fermi gamma ray telescope should be able measure gamma ray differences between the radiation during the dormant and active phases of a black hole. The Hadron Collider may be able to decipher the make up the quanta in the dark matter particles that provide the halo of attractive gravity for the galaxies. 

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When to KMS … & When Not to KMS

This blog was designed to be written just to my 11 grandchildren. However, this blog is directed at Joe Biden and myself. Hopefully my children and grandchildren will benefit from my experience with KMS. During the past couple of years I felt I needed to start listening more and talking less. Just recently I received an email from my daughter that she received from her mother-in law. A women born in the same time period as I was. Her email was called a “Bouquet of Beautiful Advice”. For me, it was like opening a time capsule from the 1930s that my mother might had written. It contained 36 items of advice that I have mostly adhered to over the years.�

KMS … “Keep Mouth Shut”,”Talk less, listen more” … advice that I followed very well during the early years of my life. Listening, observing and following others seemed the best options for a child who was shy and dyslexic. Sheer determination got me through college and engineering. Then came a point where I had to lead and express my thoughts. Looking back now, the flood gates opened and I began expressing my concerns and opinions about the corporate world and the overall direction the country was heading … My editorial comments may have been on target … but often were not appreciated. 

Many years of listening and observing can turn you into a visionary of sorts. The things you do to obtain success are not necessarily the things that will keep you successful. Change is inevitable. The status quo is a short term formula. Your grandfather still has this sense of urgency for action when I see very important high priority problems neglected. (My recent rush of blogs about our long neglected plan to become energy independent being an example).

Joe Biden had a stuttering problem as a child and probably was a good listener and observer until he conquered his problem. He also has been a person who has a sense of urgency about things he sees that could be done better. Like me, there are times to Keep Mouth Shut … observe and listen. As Vice president, he needs to pick and choose the best time to speak out for action and not speak out when it might hurt the cause he is trying to help. 

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Wait for the crisis to occur … before you try to fix it

Kids, before you get into this, blog go to http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/ In the archive list click on Hans Rosling and view his video on statistical presentations. There are some amazing possibilities with this type of statistical presentation.

It was my observation that in the 20Th century, most large scale problems were addressed by waiting for the crisis to occur before any substantive action was taken to correct the problem. Midway through the 20Th century many scientist began warning the world that the rate of growth in many areas was unsustainable. In 1970 a book called “Limits of Growth” showed graphs and projections of areas that they judged to be unsustainable. In 2000 these same scientist updated the book. Their projections, with the then primitive computing power were, on the whole, quite accurate. And they listed the unsustainable areas again.

No attempts to correct the rate of growth of these unsustainable areas had been made by the world in the 30 year period. In 2000 another book was written called “The Final Hour” on the scary consequences of ignoring these areas in the 21st century. Why Isn’t the world made aware of the potential crisis of unbridled growth in these areas? it appears that we can no longer wait for the crisis to occur … before we try to fix it. You can go back and find warnings by many scientist who are visual people and few dedicated journalist who are verbal people … but who was their audience? Just a small percentage of interested, mostly educated people?

Where are the leaders, the politicians, and the media who can reach the largest number of people? You can certainly put a lot of blame on the public who want to be entertained … not informed. Could it be that most of the TV media people and politicians … and lawyers, who bring information to vast majority of people, are verbal  people?  For example, Hillary exclaimed; “Oh no, not more Ross Perot graphs” when another candidate mentioned Perot’s name during the debate. (Sorry Hillary, Ross Perot has come out with the web site http://Perotcharts.com to put pressure on the candidates to get them out from behind the fantasy politics they are using).

Kids, “Picture worth a thousand words” is a very old Chinese saying. Actually verbal media people do understand the value of a one good emotional picture and it’s ability to sell a cause. The melting icebergs in Al Gores “An Inconvenient Truth” video were probably more compelling to the general public than his graphs and charts. Maybe we need a world wide TV organization that operates on a continuous measurable basis that can attract viewers like the weather channel and the stock market news does. A TV station that tracks the most significant issues and uses every trick in the world to entertain and inform the public using statistics like Hans Rosling’s moving data graphs.

When Hans went to the UN with his moving data graphics … He said “Good news! The UN told him his approach was no longer impossible. It was just that they couldn’t do it”. Well kids, lets hope some one figures out how to head off catastrophes before they happen. No one yet has figured how to get the media to present the really important data that is out there to the genral public.

Shooting Holes in our Nested Universes Concept [Part IV]

Is our method of recycling material in and out of a black hole reasonable? As far as I know, our concept of sending material back into our universe is not supported by anyone in the scientific community. I have used a March 2007 American Scientific article called “Black Hole Blow-back” to concock a scenario where the 25%  of material that exits the black hole in the form of massive focused jets from the north and south poles of the black sphere is coming from within the black hole … and not from the exterior as the article points out.

It’s a stretch on our part, but maybe with time observing black holes that are shooting out massive focused jets from the black hole sphere will provide an answer. This is now a likely “show stopper” for our little project of nested universes that we are investigating kids.

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Shooting Holes in our Nested Universes Concept [Part III]

We’ve read that when the accretion ring of material moves back and away from the super-massive black event horizon, that the black hole is in the dormant phase. And when the accretion ring moves into the event horizon of the black hole it is in the active “eating” phase. This implies a gravitational cycling by the black hole in conjunction with the surrounding galaxy.

Our conclusion is that when the accretion moves away from the black hole, a net repulsive gravity is occurring in the black hole. Is this the dark energy that our universe is now experiencing?

Since grandpa started this hobby in the late 90s, my rule has been not to bother the cosmology experts with questions until we have done all the research we are capable of doing by ourselves. We can do more research on part III, but we are getting to the point where we need to ask some questions.

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Shooting Holes in our Nested Universes Concept. [Part II]

Kids, for this series of four blogs, we are attempting to find problems with our nested universes concept. To do this we will go back with our conclusions, and edit each segment. This will take some time to do. The edited sections will become part of the archives of each of the four blogs.

The four parts to this series are: [1] Are the size relationships between the three space/time regions in our three nested universes reasonable? [2] Is a universe in a black hole a reasonable concept? [3] Is it reasonable to suggest that the overall repulsive gravitational force, (dark energy), being applied to our universe, is being applied by our larger “parent universe”? [4] Is our method of recycling material in and out of a black hole reasonable?  

Part II … Is our concept of a universe in a black hole reasonable? Well, we get a free pass on our nested universes concept. Grandpa thought of the concept of a universe in a black hole independently, and then found that Lee Smolin had already written a book on the subject published in 1997 called “The Life of the Cosmos”. Our concept agrees with Lee Smolin’s premise that a process of self organization like that of biological evolution shapes the universe through black holes. 

The biggest problem with the Part II concept is that there is no direct way of proving the concept. We cannot see into a black hole. Everything beyond the event horizon will always be beyond our ability to see and measure. But now that we have so many different wavelength telescopes trained on the super massive black holes in the center of every galaxy that cover the progression of black holes over time, we may find indirect evidence supporting the concept of a universe in a black hole.

Shooting Holes in our Nested Universes Concept. [part I]

When we started this blog two years ago, one of the goals of the blog has been to search for the source of the dark energy and dark matter. My goal as your grandfather has been to use this project as a way of getting of few of you grandchildren  interested in science and math. The Glast telescope and the Large Hadron Collider may begin to shed light on the role of subatomic particles in our universe early next year. Still, there is no sense of urgency for our little project, since it may still take many years for the scientist, cosmologist and mathematicians to obtain experimental proof of the sources of dark matter and dark energy.

For you kids now thinking about college, you might want to go back and read our October 2007 blog that is the Nested Universes Concept grandpa cooked up for you to help me with. First, lets poke holes in the size ratios between the universes. Grandpa has used the size difference between the event horizon diameter of the Milky Way super massive black hole and the diameter of our seeable universe. Grandpa is not a scientist or a mathematician, but, large numbers and ratios are easy to work with. The tough part is the work of astronomers getting the numbers. First, lets consider of the ratio of the diameter of our seeable universe and the diameter of the Milky Way super massive event horizon in the center of our galaxy. Is it a good approximation of the size difference between us and the next smallest universe … or not? 

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The Dream Team

It’s going to be either Obama or McCain. Not much we can do about it now. My dream team would be an independent non partisan ticket with Obama as president and McCain vice president and Obama’s chief advisor. An administration of the finest public officials dedicated to problem solving. The administration’s most trusted advisor to Obama and McCain would be a “get things done” scientist. This entire independent ticket would be elected for just one six year term. The “do nothing” incumbents hopefully would be voted out and replaced by candidates who are aware that we must become energy independent. We must stop sending our wealth to people who don’t really like us. We must be able to convert to alternative energy sources to slow down man’s contribution to global warming … and we must maintain our national security in the global arena. After six years the dream team will go home and we can revert back to the two party system and our Constitution as written.

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Yeah, Only in Your Dreams!

This blog is directed to my old school buddy Harvey. Since we have both been doing a curmudgeon act about the up coming election, I’m tempted to write a lengthy blog about an interesting dream I had last night. But first, I need to say that the two most precious gifts that one person can give to another person is their time and energy. As we get older, we try to avoid spending time on subjects that hold no interest to us. Our old school friend Allen seemed to understand the concept of not wasting his time even when we were back at school. The last time I saw Allen, I started telling Allen about my universe in a black hole concept. He looked at me funny gave me 60 seconds of his time and told me he wasn’t interested, turned and walked away. 

I have about 10 subjects that I look at as my retirement hobbies. Unfortunately they don’t appear to be the kind of subjects that interest most people. Fortunately the dream was about politics and the media, which grabs the attention of many people. However, before I get into the dream about politics and the media, I need to mention that one of my hobbies is the mysteries of human thought. Research suggests that the brain, (sub conscious mind), apparently scans the huge amount of sensations and thoughts we have during the day and then clears the brain of the less important data so that the brain is able to handle the onslaught of new sensations and thoughts the next day. Our scrambled dreams are part ot that process.

The past week I wrote two blogs, with a sense of urgency, about the need for action on the part of our government. During the past couple of weeks, people like Perot, Pickens, Major Bloomberg and then Al Gore who I heard say last night; “That we need to get rid of the fossil fuels that generate our electricity in the next 10 years.

My dream started out with my talking to my two sons and two son-in-laws about the sad lack of leadership in our country right now by our elected officials.  The scene in the dream changed to a meeting hall with a media guy on the stage spouting the usual vague generalities. I got up and started talking to the guy on stage. (Something I would not normally do). “We are the world’s super power and we are getting our tails twisted off by the terrorist and the Arab countries who support them. Our allies stand on the side lines watching us slowly slipping into decline. We can’t use our military effectively. But we can mobilize the whole country … the way we did in WWII … to end our dependence on oil and to fight global warming. Using that as a cover we will be actually fighting the battle for the minds of the moderates in the Arab world”. Just then a spectator got up and began yelling at me. I didn’t know what to say … I drew a blank … and then I woke up.

The guy was probably yelling, “Yeah, only in your dreams!” 

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We have to do all of the above

Kids, this is about the energy policy of America. But first, grandpa, would like to tell you about a meeting at work when I asked for support and resources on a project by saying; “to be successful on this project, we have to do all of the above”. It actually has some parallels to fossil fuel emissions and climate change. I gave them a list of items that needed to be done.

My job was to achieve sustainable life for a high current density electron gun in a demountable chamber designed for generating X-rays for lithography. If you are unable to bake out a vacuum chamber to remove most of the residual gases, you are left with residual gases that are still poisonous to the cathode and the life of the electron gun. To reduce the residual gases to an acceptable level to sustain the life of the electron gun I needed to have their understanding that their full support and resources were required.

To reduce our dependence for gasoline to run our automobiles and fossil fuels to create electricity we need full understanding by our administration and congress that we need to do all of the above. That means that all the of alternative sources must be considered and perhaps all of them must be used to be successful.

In order to successfully win WWII, action was immediately required to convert our industries to the military needs. Kids, I think we now need to realize that a similar urgency is required. We need to start converting our automobile industry now, we need to filter coal fired emissions now, and get as many alternative methods on line as soon as possible. This will means governmental and industrial leadership and a well planned energy policy to succeed IS NEEDED NOW.

Can the sleeping giant be awakened again?

Japanese admiral Yamamoto was quoted as saying after the attack on Pearl Harbor; “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Can the complacent over weight giant be awakened again? Our governments call to action after 9-11-2001 was that Americana’s job was to consume to keep us economically afloat. When the plan was announced by the administration to preemptively attack Iraq … Congress and the public were asleep. There was no real debate. Our volunteer army will do the dirty work … all Americans need to do was to keep on consuming.

Kids, I think our country must awaken before the coming election. This may be our last chance. We need a leader who will cry for “Action this Day” as Winston Churchill did in WWII. Not a call to fight, but a call for all of us to do something to start real action to solve our oil energy dependency. Maybe the two Texas billionaires, Perot and Pickens, can light a fire under the two candidates and our politicians before the election.

I decided the best thing I could do was to inform you eleven grandchildren about the need for engineers, scientist, and mathematicians who will be needed to find and execute the best way to energy independence. Maybe if all the grandfathers, (who were the last citizens to be called upon to serve their country in the military in WWII and Korea), were to inform their grandchildren for the need for the “sleeping giant to awaken” … that might help.

Happy Birthday Nick 7-17-2008

I read some where that non linear thinkers are often the great inventors and entrepreneurs. Most people are linear thinkers who do things in a straight, conventional well prescribed  way. Maybe I’m wrong Nick, but I have a feeling that you’re a non linear thinker like your two grandpas … who like to think way outside the box.

 I hope you are having a great summer Nick and a great birthday!