A lake, motorcycles and enforcement hypocrisy

 

 

Published 4/24/17

By John Freivalds

I do love the warm weather and the arrival of spring, but unwelcome visitors are the hundreds of Harley-Davidson motorcycles that starting noisily plying around the lake and where we live on Hennepin County Road 19.

Honda and BMW motorcycles don’t attract the type of riders who want to make as much noise as possible. A Harley with straight pipes (no muffler) gives off 100 decibels. That same as a car horn at the distance, according Purdue University.

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Here's one part of spring that isn't music to the ears

  

I've got no issue with Harleys (that would be like opposing apple pie). But about those decibels …

Published March 30th, 2017

By John Freivalds

I love warm weather and the arrival of spring. But unwelcome visitors are the hundreds of Harley Davidson motorcycles that start noisily plying around Lake Minnetonka. Honda and BMW motorcycles don’t attract the type of riders who want to make as much noise as possible.

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Health Care Access is not the same as Coverage:

Here’s Mayo’s Economic Reality

  

I have been going to the Mayo clinic for over 10 years and wanted to bring this personal view of healthcare to people’s attention. Money talks and Medicare no longer will.

Published March 15th, 2017

By John Freivalds

The Mayo Clinic is a mystical concept in many people’s minds.  I used to think that it was a place only Kings and Presidents of countries went for the best medical care.  But when my knees went bad I found out otherwise.  And my situation points out that access to Mayo or other top other clinics, like Cleveland, Mt. Sinai, Johns Hopkins or MD Anderson around the country does not mean than you can get treated there.

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What the Trojan Horse Can Teach Donald Trump

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By John Freivalds

Published 2/15/17

For you history challenged people, the Trojan horse was a method that the ancient Greeks used to get into the Kingdom of Troy which was protected by supposedly impregnable walls.  The Greeks presented a huge horse to the Trojans as a gift.  They hauled it inside the huge walls but it was full of soldiers who then opened the gates and Troy was overrun.  Fact or fable from around 600 BC, who knows, but it was the origin of the phrase written by the poet Virgil in 49 BC “beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”  And of course this was transposed in Appalachian English as “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

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The Ant Farm - 2017

  

Published 1/11/2017

By John Freivalds

“Many ants practice trophalixis which involves reciprocal feeding between individuals and the exchange of chemicals that trigger certain behavior.”  If there ever was a place on earth where this reciprocal feeding using the exchange of chemicals occurs, it is Washington, D.C. where I just visited for my 50th class reunion of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.  And Old Ebbitt's Grill across from the Treasury Department is a key place where chemicals are exchanged.

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