Annual Reports to
Family and Friends
1994-present
from Paul VanRaden
2025 Annual Report
December 30, 2025 at
1pm
The year
2025 had so much news for me and for you that I reported every week
and will give you a short summary here. The big changes for me were seeing my government research
group be attacked, retiring at age 65 as planned, moving to Florida full
time, caring for my wife
during her last 6 months of life, seeing my daughter get
married, sharing my advice freely, and researching many new topics. But
many things about my life stayed constant: my diet, exercise, religion,
philosophy, and goal.
I still
care equally about all people on earth. The current U.S. government hates the
idea of liberty and justice for all, but I pledge allegiance
to a future where people will have equal opportunity on both sides of national
borders. You can still value equality, diversity, and include all people in the
phrase “liberty and justice for all” as I always did.
In
February I had successful cataract surgery on my right eye and plan to wait
another year or two for the left eye which still seems ok. In March and April, Cheryl
was in the emergency room for a week and hospitalized for a month but did not
recover well. In May, I reduced my earthly belongings to 1 car full including
my bike, drove my car to FL, and gave it to Cesar. Angel and Cesar moved out of
their apartment and now live part time with me and part time with his brother
Rey.
This year
no researchers could travel for work, but I had a few other nice trips. In
June, Cheryl and I went to West Palm Beach, FL for Angel and Cesar’s wedding and
to visit family. With much help from home health nurses and family, we made
Cheryl’s remaining months as pleasant as possible. This year I copied hundreds
of family pictures from the past into online displays
to help us all remember the nice times we had together, but several more
picture books are yet to be processed. In November, I visited Mexico for the
first time with Angel, Cesar, his brother Rey, and his friend Destini. In
October, Charlee and 4 of the grandkids visited us in Florida and in December,
Angel and I visited them in Maryland and explored New York City together.
During 37
years of working for U.S. taxpayers, I chose projects that greatly improved
animal genetics. After retiring I do free research on topics that could be more
useful but often have less chance of success. Posting my projects is easy but
more people saw my USDA reports than my private reports. Decades from now people
might value my human research more than my cow research. About 4 times more
people visited my website paulvanraden.com in 2025 than 2024, and a new report on website
management lists the most popular pages (such as 1,400 views of my article
on simple calendars), shows where
in the world people are reading what I write, and gives advice on ways to share
information.
My diet is still slightly
below $3 total cost for all food and drinks each day but 13% more costly than
last year. About 9% of that inflation was caused by moving from Maryland to
Florida where food costs more. In 2025, I also defended processed foods because
the U.S. Secretary of Health hates science and has some sick ideas. My exercise in 2025
totaling 221 hours was 5 more hours than in 2024 due to lifting more weights
(16 vs. 2 hours) in the nice gym 1 mile away but I no longer bike to work and
biked 11% less (1,229 miles or 1,978 km). Also in 2025, I suggested ways to
improve sports and I counted laps in different languages to exercise mind and
body at the same time. My
religion has been the same since 1983, and after 42 years I added updates
to that page on how to become an Atheist.
Other
reports this year reviewed my mental health, my 4-H and FFA
projects from 50 years ago, agreement of my pedigree with
my DNA test, compared thinking to
computing, compared placism
to racism, the politics
of immigration, holiday
history, cryptocurrency,
and others.
In 2026, if
the United States still has a democracy we can celebrate 250 years of that form
of government on July 4, but I do not celebrate independence because that is a
bad idea in our interdependent world. The next 250 years could be happier and
more productive for our whole planet if we declare our dependence on each other
and unite earth into
a better place for you and me to live. Try to make 2026 better than 2025. Happy
new year!
Paul
2024 Annual Report
December 31, 2024 at
2pm
Greetings from Poinciana, FL where I’m
spending the holidays. In a few months I will retire when I’m 65 in May and
move here. Last April 2024 Angel got engaged to Cesar Morel who she has known
since high school. The next week after their engagement, Cheryl and I went on a
cruise with them. In December they moved about 30 miles away from Poinciana to
Lake Nona, near the Orlando airport, to be closer to their jobs. They are
planning their wedding for later in 2025.
During all of 2024 I used my Egyptian
calendar with the days numbered 1 to 366. It has 12 30-day months plus 5 or 6
days at year end, and today is leap day 366 which comes at the end of every 4th
year on the Egyptian calendar instead of having uneven months and putting leap
day somewhere in the middle as the Romans did. Happy leap day! My calendar was
pretty full so it was good to get that extra day today, even if most people
thought the extra day was in February. If you want to use the Egyptian calendar
for 2025 it is available, along with other new reports on making English
easier, making the world more democratic, and the rediscovered family audio
from 1986 at:
paulvanraden.com/Calendars_OldMeetsNew.htm
http://www.paulvanraden.com/Easy_English.htm
paulvanraden.com/United_Earth_Rules.htm
http://www.paulvanraden.com/VanRaden_Family_Audio_1986.htm
While cleaning out my old office files
at USDA I summarized how helpful my college courses were during my 36 years of
research. During 2024 I spoke to student and faculty groups at WI, IA, MD, and
MN, adapting those slides to the
audience at each university. I did not give a speech at U IL because they have
few students in animal genetics there now. But the professor of my favorite
class at Urbana, Mike Grossman, was watching my speech at U WI online when I
mentioned his Population Genetics class. The next day he found the grades from
that 1980 class and reported that I was the only student who got an A+ in that
year. He retired from U IL several years ago but then taught international courses
on how to write scientific papers.
My scientific meetings in 2024 were in
W Palm Beach, FL and in Bled, Slovenia. The main topics of my speeches at both
were about how cow and bull owners all around the world now directly use the US
genetic prediction service. I also gave a farewell speech to Interbull saying
that I loved being at their meetings because then I could think about solving
bigger problems for the whole world instead of solving only the small problems we
have here in America. I also went to research planning meetings in Nashville
and Savannah, GA, but next year other scientists will have those duties. I
wanted to visit museums in DC one more time before moving to FL and Miriam came
out for a week in October and helped me do that.
This year my bike went 1386 miles and
my car went 1382 miles so technically I was > 50% green unless we count my
airplane miles (>20,000) which were mostly for business or my cruise ship miles
(3,000) or train and subway miles (700) too. Compared to biking fast and
breathing heavy, carbon dioxide emissions per person per mile are about 10 times more by flying, 12 times more by gas
car, and 25 times more by cruise ship because cruises are like taking a house
and a town with you, but passenger trains emit only 1/3 as much CO2 as cycling
and subways emit a little more than cycling due to their frequent stops and starts.
In Dec my old bike broke and I got a new one. My other exercise was about the
same as last year and increased slightly from 208 to 216 total hours.
This year politicians of both parties
debated how to solve the “food price inflation crisis” and the “immigration
crisis.” My grocery bill
increased by only 2.8% from $2.54 in 2023 to $2.61 in 2024 for 2,381 calories
per day. Most Americans can afford $2.61 per day, so not much crisis here, and milk
is now cheaper per calorie than corn flakes. The U.S. population grew at the
slow pace of only 0.7% in 2024 compared to Earth’s population increase of 1.2%.
Neither party proposed asking 1.7 million more people to immigrate next
year than immigrated last year just to keep up with the rest of the world,
calculated as the current U.S. population of 346 million times (1.2% - 0.7%) /
100. Just as last year, America still housed and fed only 33% of our fair share
of earth’s people, see my updated report
on population.
Immigration also decreases the crime
rate because most immigrants commit fewer crimes than most citizens. In DC, the
U.S. politician who committed the most crimes will move back into the White
House in January. Last July, 6 Supreme Court Justices ruled that a President
can commit any crime and they will be fine with that. In the case of Trump vs. United
States, the 3 Justices that got lifetime jobs worth millions of dollars from
him did not recuse themselves from cases about his crimes. The Supreme Court
also blocked many other judges from following the Constitution and the law.
The earth added 94 million more people
in 2024 than the 8 billion of us in 2023. Countries with the highest population
growth rates in 2024 were 6.4% in Syria, 3.2% in Uganda, 2.4% in Ethiopia, and
1.9% in Pakistan. Lowest growth rates were -1.3% in Puerto Rico, -0.4% in Japan,
-0.2% in Russia, and -0.1% in Germany. About 5 million refugees left Syria 10
years ago and a half million recently moved back to Syria and helped get rid of
their dictator Assad in December. A Syrian student Bassam was my housemate
while in Iowa and my best friend while we were in Wisconsin. He stayed in Syria
and became Director of Biotechnology in the Syrian government.
I continue to care about all people
equally. Being pro-everyone is not anti-American, it is simply pro-everyone. About
half of Americans voted to make America great again even if that policy hurts
the 96% of people that we force to remain un-American. Our VanRaden pedigree includes
32 known ancestors from Europe who decided to become Americans. For now, we can
still do what is best for the world and hope that after January 20th
the new government in Washington will not arrest us for that. I am glad that the
Americans did not deport our illegal alien ancestors who took land from the
Indians. Hopefully the aliens and the Indians will be pleased with how nice the
whole earth becomes someday.
Hope you had a happy leap day today and
that your new year is even happier.
2023 Annual Report
December 31, 2023 at
8:15pm
Greetings from Greenbelt after
interesting research projects and a full travel schedule again in 2023. In
Canada I presented new adjustments for uneven milking intervals with Deb as coauthor
and in France methods to account for the growing use of cloning. Other business
trips were to Louisville where I visited the Sabakas, to Madison when I visited
Lanark to sort historical items with Deb and Judy, and to Phoenix this month.
In November I got covid for the first time, no worse than a bad cold, but had
to connect by zoom instead of meeting in person with industry advisors that
flew here to MD to visit us. Covid is causing about 3% of current deaths and
10% of hospital visits so is still worth not getting.
In September, Cheryl and Angel moved
about 30 miles from Clermont to Poinciana, FL. I may move there too in 2025,
about 900 miles away. In 2023 I started practicing for retirement by doing
non-USDA things such as helping Hillary and Andrea document our ancestry,
writing and posting new material to my world web site, and creating a new
personal web site. The first 2 links below may be of interest and include a few
items borrowed from Hillary’s pedigree pages. The last 3 links are more
technical:
http://www.paulvanraden.com/InteractingWithFamily.htm
http://www.paulvanraden.com/PersonalProblems.htm
http://www.paulvanraden.com/AbortionEthics.htm
http://www.paulvanraden.com/Governing_a_United_Earth.htm
http://www.paulvanraden.com/Calendars_OldMeetsNew.htm
The news continues to report the crisis
that people move from poor places to better places, which seems like a good
thing to me. Moving to FL might benefit someone from Haiti even more than me,
and they live closer to FL (< 900 miles) so obviously that should be allowed.
In recent years, millions of refugees moved from Afghanistan to Pakistan,
millions from Ukraine to Poland and Germany, millions from Syria to Turkey,
millions from Myanmar to Bangladesh, millions from Sudan to Uganda, and
millions from Venezuela to Colombia. Few refugees have moved to the United
States, which is not even in the top 10 destinations. While our politicians
invent new barriers, the real crisis is that we force people to live in hopeless
homes in Haiti, Gaza, etc. instead of letting them move when they choose to
better homes as we do.
Some food prices decreased this year so
I can buy eggs again and my food cost is back down to $2.54 day, only slightly
higher than the $2.28 that I paid for the same items in 1987. Food has inflated
little over 36 years, what a bargain! General inflation this year is closer to
the target of 2%, with 3% in N. America and 4% in Europe compared to last year’s
7% in N. America and 11% in Europe. Unfortunately, Argentina’s 92% inflation
last year increased to 161% and Venezuela’s 156% increased to 283% this year.
Venezuelans who worked hard in earlier years now have few rights, jobs, or
anything they can afford which is why some walk 2,500 miles to the Rio Grande.
Better news is that Zimbabwe’s inflation is down to 22% this year from 244%
last year so we can celebrate their economic turnaround.
Exercise set a new personal record for me
this year with 209 total hours compared to 155 last year. The main reason was
biking the 6-mile round trip to the office most days totaling 1,300 miles. In
2023 my car went only a little farther than my bike but contributing more CO2
into the atmosphere in its 1,500 miles.
After 7 years I had to update my resume
in December for a small chance to get a higher salary during my last year at
USDA. For the last decade I got inflation increases but no real increase in salary.
Real income for the average person on earth increased by 3% this year, with 4%
salary growth in less developed regions compared to 2.1% in USA, making some
progress toward world equality.
This year 131 million earthlings were
born and 59 million died, increasing earth’s population
by 0.9% in 2023. The U.S. population grew by only 0.5%. Even if we accept a
million more immigrants in 2024 than we did in 2023, our proportion of the world’s
population will continue to decline. Currently the rest of the world supports
about 3 times more citizens per acre of farmland compared to the U.S.
Agriculture remains very important to most of earth’s 8 billion citizens, even
as millions of people in richer regions struggle against obesity.
My optimistic predictions for 2023 did
not come true: Putin did not retire, and Trump is not yet in jail. The obvious
prediction for next year is that we will waste too much time again hearing about
an evil dictator or a candidate promising to become an evil dictator instead of
working together to solve world problems. In 2024, please vote for the most
truthful, law-abiding, kind candidates, even if they are over the hill. I am
nearing the top of the hill and might soon be over the hill so that I can coast
down to the easier life that awaits.
Hoping
the new year will be happy and productive in your region of earth, and in all
regions.
Paul
2022
Annual Report
December 31, 2022 at 8:04 PM
Greetings
after another pleasant and productive year in Greenbelt, MD and best wishes for
the next year everywhere. In 2022 many governments rediscovered that prices
tend to go up if you give everyone more money without more stuff available to
buy. Inflation went up to 7% in USA, 7% in Canada, 8% in Mexico, 11% in Europe,
12% in Russia, and 92% in Argentina where citizens are still happy because
their soccer team just won the 2022 World Cup and their inflation rate is better
than the 156% in Venezuela or 244% in Zimbabwe:
Inflation Rate - By Country
(tradingeconomics.com)
During 2022
USDA still did not allow foreign travel but did allow attending domestic
meetings again. In June I chaired the genetics program at the Dairy Science
meeting in Kansas City and attended 4 other domestic meetings, but most smaller
meetings still use zoom. Interbull’s meeting allowed only in-person talks in Canada
so I could not speak to them for the first time in 20 years but did give an
invited remote talk to the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock
Production. They meet every 4 years - this time was in Rotterdam. USDA
scientists could not even pay registration because the meeting organizers would
not sign the new US government form requiring that they use no Chinese
software. Fortunately our private-sector partners paid registration fees for
the USDA scientists.
In September
my research group relocated within Beltsville 3 miles east into the building
that the other half of our Lab was in since we were merged on paper about 15
years ago. The move was an opportunity to thin out my own paper files and
better organize the USDA historical files. Those go back to 1908 when our Lab
invented the Dairy Herd Improvement data collection and analysis system that
now measures up to 50 traits on more than half of all U.S dairy cows, summarizes
bull data from 30 countries, and inspects cow genotypes from 60 countries.
Business is booming.
Earlier this
year the official U.S. government retirement income calculator said if I retire
at age 65 my income will be 101% of what I get now for working. During the next
2 years I will try to hand off all current duties to others and then retire to
do other research even more exciting than cow research. In 2021 and 2022 we hired
2 new scientists and are now hiring 2 new support scientists so I have a lot of
training to do. Last year a high school senior helped as unpaid intern and then
worked as a paid summer intern. Many of our previous USDA staff now work for
the non-profit company that inherited much of the service work from USDA. Their
office is 15 miles further east and could be another option for me.
This summer
Cheryl and Angel and I attended the Baltimore wedding of stepdaughter Charlee to
Jerry Jackson. They have been together for 7 years and have a son but finally
made it official. See picture of daughters below. Then in October we took
Charlee’s 5 kids and Angel’s boyfriend Cesar to Destin in the panhandle of FL
so Charlee and Jerry could have some honeymoon time also in FL. It was a fun
trip. Next week I will renew my personal passport that expired 6 years ago so I
can use it for flying instead of updating my driver’s license to real ID. Then I
can venture out further and not just attend future official meetings using my
government passport which I will not have in a couple years.
Diet and
exercise can both improve health. For the past 8 years my annual reports have
shown exercise trends in a table but this year in a graph for easier viewing.
For the past 35 years my diet has stayed almost the same and my web site has
updated the exact ingredients and prices every 5 years. This year I added more charts
and graphs such as the one below. Inflation has made it very difficult to stay
below the $3 per day as I did since 1987 but the inflation adjusted food cost
has declined over the decades as shown in the grey line. Many more nutritious
and tasty details about food are available at:
http://www.paulvanraden.com/Nutrition.htm
For the new
year my most optimistic predictions are for Trump to begin a jail term in 2023 instead
of a second term in 2024 and for Putin to follow Pope Benedict’s example and
retire instead of being arrested and sent to hard labor in Siberia or convicted
by the international criminal court and deported to The Hague to serve a life
term. Either of those news items will make 2023 very happy. A more cautious
prediction is that Miriam will discover that summer in Antarctica is colder
than any winter in San Diego. In MD, Jan 1 and 2 will be 60 degrees so I predict
getting an early start on 2023 exercise. May your next year be pleasant and
productive.
Paul
2021 Annual Report
December 31, 2021 at 8:52pm
Dear family
My year 2021
began with an easy drive back to MD after 3 peaceful weeks in FL. A few days
later some people who lost the presidential election lost their minds and tried
to keep the Loser here in DC instead of sending him back to FL. He belongs in a
DC prison with those who followed his lead in trying to lose democracy. That is
all I will say about local politics.
Summarizing
family events from 2021 seems less needed after a year of sib zoom meetings
most Saturdays. Thank you Miriam for organizing and hosting those. Instead I
will comment on one of the several annual reports already received. Bailey
Elizabeth Winship still writes well and keeps up with who's who and what's
happening as well as any of her human companions, but she seems stuck thinking
the same final thoughts as 9 years ago. To me that just shows that you cannot teach
an old dog new philosophy. Perhaps Brooke should write next year's letter to
see if the next canine generation has learned new tricks or still believes in
that same old philosophy. My philosophy evolved a lot when I was younger but
has been steady for the past few decades. I hope that your philosophy serves
you, those you know, and the others we share the earth with equally well. If it
does not, even an old human can learn new philosophy.
Learning new
physical activities is not as easy for old humans or old dogs, so I tend to
keep doing the same old activities every year to keep my muscles and neurons
both functioning. This year the outdoor pool and the weight room were closed
again so some other activities were substituted:
Table 1.
Exercise trends that keep Paul healthy
2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
2012 Activity
846 853
811 587 509 516 460
520 425 472 miles biking
180 223
135 108 109 123 105
122 157 116 miles running
130 140
805 565 706 695 610
654 668 433 laps swimming
12 9
13 15 16
19 11 16
15 11 hours basketball
0 3
10 11 11
5 6 4
8 6 hours lifting weights
132 140
159 125 124 124 105
108 109 84 hours vigorous exercise (total)
My year 2021
ended with another December trip to FL but this time I flew down and bought a
car while there, but did not get a chance to drive it. Maybe next trip. The year
2022 may seem about the same as the previous to most dogs, but most human lives
will likely see more changes. May your philosophy help you keep up with the
changes and make it a happy year for all.
Paul
2020 Annual Report
Dec 31, 2020 at 8:50 PM
Dear sibs
We all survived the pandemic year so
congratulations on that. Our probabilities of survival will increase a little in
2021 after the vaccines reach us, but of us sibs only Judy (and Harold) are
essential workers needed to keep the nation fed so they might have priority. I
have been in FL the last 2 weeks where 65 year olds in theory can now get
vaccinated but few have yet. Covid has not impacted me much except that
managing employees is a little trickier without seeing them in the office.
Maybe I should have asked Deb for advice from her years of remotely working for
the dental society. One of my postdocs works from OH and one works here in FL.
As of tomorrow I will have 3 more employees because my boss quit today and
moved to Madison to work for an AI and dairy management company.
My 2020 exercise schedule had to be revised
because the pool and gym were closed most of the year and the county took down
all the basketball hoops also, so I ran twice as far to make up for the lack of
swimming and lifting. Actually I played 3 hours of basketball with no hoop just
to keep up my coordination and imagination.
Table 1. Exercise trends that
keep Paul healthy
2020 2019 2018 2017 2016
2015 2014 2013 2012
Activity
853
811 587 509
516 460 520 425
472 miles of biking
223 135
108 109 123 105
122 157 116
miles of running
140 805
565 706 695 610
654 668 433
laps of swimming
9
13 15
16 19 11
16 15 11
hours of basketball
3
10 11
11 5
6 4
8 6 hours of
lifting weights
The best news of the year was getting rid of our
worst president in US history who spent his first 3 years trying to destroy the
government, his last year failing to use it, and his last 2 months trying to
overturn our old habit of 240 years of democracy. The pandemic was a temporary
inconvenience compared to his more permanent damage of poisoning so many minds.
I am very ashamed that small towns and farm communities bought all the lies,
fear, and hate that he sold. Many years of truth, calm, and love will be needed
to heal the effects of the poison. The new year, and the vaccines, will give us
a chance to recover. Hope 2021 is happier than 2020 wherever you happen to be.
We spent part of Christmas day in Disney because Angel had to work but it was a
little dangerous because of too many people, even with masks. Happy holidays.
Paul
2019 Annual Report
Dec 28, 2019 at 8:10 PM
Dear sibs
Happy holidays! As the new year begins the US
government is open and funded which is a big improvement over the 6-week
shutdown last year. This year instead of trying to build a giant wall
they are debating about the more trivial matter of removing 1
person from office. In our USDA office, 6 of the 13 people that were
working 4 years ago were removed due to 3 retirements, 2 transfers, and 1
death and they were not replaced. But last week we got some good news that
the USDA research budget will increase by 8.5% in 2020, and two
weeks ago we interviewed to refill 1 position. The most qualified
applicant for that was born in USA but spent the next 20 years growing up in
Iran and then returned here for a PhD and is already doing beef cattle research
for USDA in Montana.
The office water has been
undrinkable for a year for about 1,000 researchers in Beltsville due
to too much lead and no funds to fix the problem. But USDA's
own estimate published in 2019 is that the genomic methods
we developed for the past 10 years had a direct benefit to the dairy
industry of $4 billion. Three scientists in our lab are listed as being in
the top 0.1% of scientists based on impact across all
disciplines, and this June I received the award for best research in dairy
science. But next year the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is planning to move
out of DC, tear down the old USDA building where I worked in the
1990's, and build a big new building in its place to print all the $
bills. I suppose that's an easier way to make $4 billion.
In 2019 I had no international travel for the
first time in decades because our national and international meetings
were together in Cincinnati, but I already have 2 trips to The Netherlands
scheduled for the first half of 2020. Last summer Angel tried selling
Toyotas by telemarketing but after a few months went back to the Asian
restaurant job. A new trend in marketing is shop online - pickup in store, and
for the last month Cheryl got paid to shop all day long,
collecting the items that people picked out and
getting them ready either to be picked up or delivered locally. She liked
the job but it was seasonal.
I enjoy getting the nice family pictures and
news from the next generation in our family. Earlier this year when Andrea and
Andy visited DC I remembered a picture of our large family attending
church on Sunday morning in 1963. The attached is from the 100-year
celebration of the Forreston reformed church. In the front row from left
to right are:
Judy Paul Katie Miriam Mark Dave Bud Deb.
Commuting by bike most weekdays gave me more
exercise in 2019 than in previous years. On weekends I ran and
swam more, and the laps in the Greenbelt pool are also longer
than in previous years. In 2020 it will be my turn to turn 60 but I'm
not planning to slow down much. This fall while Charlee visited FL, I
drove granddaughter Samira off to college in PA for her first semester. Her sister
Lexy is also studying and working in Baltimore. Grandkids in college
makes me seem old even if I don't feel it.
Table 1. Exercise trends that
keep Paul healthy
2019 2018 2017 2016
2015 2014 2013 2012
Activity
811 587 509
516 460 520 425 472
miles of biking
135
108 109 123 105
122 157 116
miles of running
805
565 706 695 610
654 668 433
laps of swimming
13
15 16
19 11
16 15
11 hours of basketball
10
11 11
5 6
4 8
6 hours of lifting weights
Wishing you and your families good health,
peace on earth, and more respect for each other than you
see these days here in DC. Maybe the politicians we choose next year
will get along better and do their jobs so well we will hardly notice
them, and everyone else can enjoy their lives and help others improve
theirs. Happy next year.
Paul
2018 Annual Report, 2019 Predictions
Dec 29, 2018 at 2:19 PM
Dear sibs
Happy holidays to you and thanks for your
nice news summaries, cards, and pictures. My 2018 started with a
2-week trip to New Zealand for meetings where I reported on feed
efficiency as a new trait which we hope to launch officially in 2019. In
2018 we also added genetic rankings for 6 more health traits
(mastitis, ketosis, metritis, retained placenta, displaced abomasum, and milk
fever) now recorded by many dairy farmerrs in DHIA. In 2019 we will
also add rankings for age at first calving to allow selection for early
maturity, and genomic predictions for crossbreds whereas previously we did
only separate predictions for each pure breed.
This summer to get a shorter commute I sold
my house and moved to 446 Ridge Road, Apt 2, Greenbelt, MD 20770, about 3 miles
from work instead of 19. When the weather is nice I bike to work on nice
bike paths most of the way. This fall my indoor pool is full length
but was half length in previous years, so my miles of swimming have increase
even if laps have decreased (see Table 1). Recently the USDA Beltsville research
center changed water testing methods and found that our old pipes are
delivering many times the allowable levels of lead, much like in Flynt,
MI. I drank only tap water at work for the last 30 years and hopefully it has
not slowed me down, but now they provide bottled water.
In October I got to visit Deb and Judy between
speeches at the World Dairy Expo. In Nov Angel turned 21 and went to Las Vegas
with Cheryl, and in Dec I got to meet Angel's new boyfriend Darren. My
next trip will be to Reno to celebrate 10 years since we invented
genomic prediction and to forecast the next 10 years. Our cow database was the
first to reach 1 million DNA analyses and now we have 3 million but
Ancestry.com now has more than 10 million DNA samples. Cows
get results in 1 week whereas humans have to wait 6-8 weeks for their DNA
results, except during the holidays when the human service is even
slower.
Probably you get too much news already from DC
so I try to avoid that if possible. Each year at USDA seems to
bring more projects but fewer researchers to do them, but this
week we are down to 0 researchers. Being unemployed at the holidays has
not slowed me down, but most people prefer doing steady work for a functional
organization. Mark's comments are all true and were obvious to everyone
already in Nov 2016. Unfortunately, half of Americans voted for
the lying and cheating for entertainment sake or because they
actually do hate citizens of other countries, cultures, or religions. In the
rural towns where we grew up, 60-70% still love the lies and fear the world. I
do not. The truths I believe in have stayed true over the last 2
decades and are well documented for all to see:
Wishing you, your families, your friends, your
neighbors, and the whole planet you live on a happier 2019.
Paul
Table 1. Exercise trends that
keep Paul healthy
2018 2017 2016
2015 2014 2013 2012
Activity
587 509 516
460
520 425 472
miles of biking
108 109
123 105
122 157 116
miles of running
565 706
695 610
654 668 433
laps of swimming
15
16 19 11
16 15
11 hours of basketball
11
11 5
6 4
8 6 hours of lifting
weights
2017 Annual Report
Dec 31, 2017 at 8:37 PM
Dear sibs
Happy 2018, in a few hours. The year 2017 was
very busy here but not as happy as some previous years. Life is better when
leaders solve problems rather than create problems for others, and remove
barriers rather than build walls.
As predicted last year, the 4 frozen
jobs at my office are still empty and we have only 10 of our 14
positions filled now, down from 20 employees a decade ago. Instead of
hiring directly, USDA asked us to reroute our leftover budget funds
to hire 2 postdocs for 1 year terms via the Department of Energy! Normally
our workers have to come to work, but one of the 2 new postdocs is working
remotely from the University of Georgia where she just finished her PhD in
animal breeding. Normally we have to hire U.S. citizens, but the new jobs
were open to foreign citizens, and the second postdoc just
arrived from China. Normally we must work on
only projects in the 5-year plan that we wrote last year
and was approved this year (with the highest possible score from external
reviewers), but instead of working on that we had to think of additional
projects not in our 5-year plan for the 2 new postdocs to work
on! Normally the Chief Scientific Officer at USDA is supposed to know
science, but the president's nominee for that job had no scientific
training and instead was an anti-science talk show host.
My health has been good except for a bad back
for a month last summer. In general, experts continue recommending
exercise as a way to keep feeling young, and I continue following
their advice, as shown in Table 1. My records use pencil and paper,
but many people now wear fitness tracking devices to estimate how much walking
they do, and the phones of some of my coworkers also measure their driving
habits such as speeding, braking, accelerating, cornering, and rank them
compared to other drivers in the county. One coworker's 19-year-old son
already had 5 accidents and totaled 2 cars in his first 2 years of
driving, but his phone still rates him as average for the county, so
either the phone is not accurate or the county has very bad drivers.
My 20-year-old daughter is a very good driver
and even drove from Shannon to Forreston this month, stopping at
White Oak and at aunt Deb's farm. We both enjoyed visiting the family, and
aunt Miriam was a great host. Sorry that Angel missed seeing Mark, Lise,
and Gwynneth. When returning to O'Hare after seeing downtown Chicago for a
few hours, my plane was delayed about an hour because of a short snow burst,
and the de-icing crew and equipment were not ready. The thermometer
is forecast to stay below freezing all this week in MD, reminding me
to schedule my next trip to FL. Cheryl continues working at Lowes there, and
Angel at Disney Springs.
Twenty five years ago was the final year of
our brother Dave's life and the first time I wrote a poem. It ended
"I will honor your name just doing more of the same, and telling truths so
clear you'd slightly smile if you were here." In 2017, truth seemed
to disappear from the white house and some areas
of government. Trust is easy to destroy but takes a
long time to restore because many truths and nice things are needed
to counteract each lie and mean thing. Many of us in government still
try to maintain trust by describing the facts and predicting the
future as accurately as possible, and giving society the most value back
for each tax dollar received. You and your families also contribute
very positively to improving earth's total goodness. In 2018 and beyond, we should
continue to say nice things, tell truths, and not allow a loud
mouth's shouts to drown out prouder sounds. We all deserve a happier,
more harmonious new year.
Paul
Table 1. Exercise trends that
keep Paul healthy
2017 2016
2015 2014 2013 2012
Activity
509
516 460
520 425 472
miles of biking
109
123 105
122 157 116
miles of running
706
695 610
654 668 433
laps of swimming
16
19 11
16 15
11 hours of basketball
11
5 6
4 8
6 hours of lifting weights
2016 Annual Report, Holiday Pictures
Jan
7, 2017 at 9:54 PM
Dear sibs
This 2016 report is a little late because I was in FL taking a break, but
after 5 days of 80 degrees I returned to MD in time to shovel
snow and now I have a cold. This report may seem shorter than last year's
but is actually longer, because 2 pictures are worth 2,000 words according
to my math. In attached picture a, back row left to right has Grandma,
Charlee, Angel, and Grandpa, middle row has grandkids Brandon, BJ, Samira, and
Elexys, and front row Jeremiah. Angel is 19, works at Disney, and has a
boyfriend, and so far the grandkid contribution is Charlee 5 and Angel
0 which seems fine for now.
At my office we had 6 PhDs in 2000 and then
4 in 2015, but in 2016 one retired, one left for a USDA job in WI, and the other
one is now boss of the merged lab and has many more people to manage, so I have
many more duties than before but also a couple more employees of the scientists
that left now working for me. We may not be able to rehire
for the 2 scientists if republicans decide that the best way to
create jobs is by a hiring freeze. In December the dairy breeding
industry approved spending > $1 more for extra data collection. For example,
already a USDA grant spent $5 million to collect daily feed intakes of 5,000
cows, and we will start doing genetic selection to reduce feed
intake for millions of other cows and bulls with the new data
collected. The industry will collect several other new traits too.
At home, I tried to stay active in case my feed
intake was too high. Most 2016 activity totals are up from 2015 which is good
unless I'm just running in circles. In 2017 I'm getting off to a slow
start because of this cold and snow.
2016 2015
2014 2013 2012 Activity
516 460
520 425 472 miles
of biking
123 105
122 157 116
miles of running
695 610
654 668 433
laps of swimming
19 11
16 15
11 hours of basketball
5 6
4 8
6 hours of lifting weights
0 0
5 3
0 hours of tennis
Thank you for sending your annual reports
and pictures, and may 2017 be another fine year for you. The next 4 years may
be bad for the country, but in 2020 voters can elect someone
new to make America great again. Until then, we can do our best to
make the whole world better for everyone.
Paul
2015 Annual Report, 2030 Predictions
Jan 1, 2016 at 11:31 AM
Dear sibs
Happy New Year! Thanks for sending your holiday
updates, my annual reports are hopefully informative even if not as festive.
The past year was exactly as long as the meteorologists forecast (365 days), but
the next year they predict will have 366 so we'll see if that holds true.
Forecasting the weather is a little trickier, but sometimes they get very
precise with that too. Last winter when the weather.com web site got too slow I
started using accuweather instead, and laughed when their first forecast said
"It will begin snowing in 7 minutes." I looked out the window and did
not see any snow, but 10 minutes later it was snowing, so I was impressed with
the accuracy. If their long term warming forecasts are correct, we should all
begin moving north as Mark and Miriam did this year instead of south as the
rest of my family did.
More dairy farmers continue to use the accurate
genetic predictions we calculate at work. In July our database was the first in
the world to have > 1 million DNA samples genotyped. Now we have 1.16
million genotyped dairy cattle, but ancestry.com just passed us with >1.2
million, and 23andMe also has >1 million. Their predictions are not yet very
accurate, but eventually they may catch on.
Two years ago I got a new boss when our labs
merged, but this month she announced that she will no longer be our boss and
will just be a scientist again. For awhile we will take turns being the acting
research leader, but soon will need to decide on a more permanent replacement.
I prefer doing research and programming, but may volunteer. The pay is the same
either way.
Forecasting requires accurate data. When first comparing
this year's activity data to last year's below, I worried that fitness is
declining too quickly. However, the trend from 2012 to 2015 is ok, so maybe I
should not worry. Most extrapolation models predict that my activity levels
will still be positive in 2030 at age 70 rather than 6 feet under. A steady
decline of just 10% / year would lead to a negative biking or running distance
in 2030 using linear prediction, but most experts extrapolate using
exponentional functions. In that case, being 90% as active each year as the
last year would reduce activity by .9 to the power 15 or to only 21% of current
fitness in 2030. Holding the decline to just 5% per year gives 46% of current
fitness, whereas just 5% more activity each year could double your fitness over
15 years. My main activity in 2015 not recorded below was 3,800 hours of
staring at computer screens. Of course, just enjoying life without so much data
analysis is also a recommended option.
2015 2014 2013 2012 Activity
460
520 425 472 miles
of biking
105 122
157 116 miles of
running
610 654
668 433 laps of
swimming
11
16 15
11 hours of basketball
6
4 8
6 hours of lifting weights
0
5 3
0 hours of tennis
More important than my happiness or your
happiness is of course the earth's total happiness over all people, with some
credit for animal happiness and a tiny credit even for plant happiness. I predict
that 2016 will be less happy than 2015 because more time will be wasted on
political attack ads instead of calmly solving problems together. Already in
2015 I began watching more news from ALJazeera or BBC, but even their more
thoughtful international reporting often gets trumped by worthless American
politics. My forecast for 2030 is more optimistic than for 2016 because even a
political party that currently seems very hateful and stupid eventually will
remember why that political party was formed: "It is a struggle for
maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading
object is, to elevate the condition of men - to lift artificial weights from
all shoulders - to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all - to afford all,
an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race of life. (Abraham Lincoln's
speech to Congress, July 4, 1861).
May you, your families, and everyone get a fair
chance to enjoy 2016 and to prosper until 2030 and beyond. Have a happy year.
Paul
Happy New Year, and 2014 Annual Report
Jan 1, 2015 at 2:23 PM
Dear sibs
Greetings to you in 2015, and congratulations to
us all for completing another lap around the sun while spinning 365 times
toward the east without getting dizzy. This year Miriam intends to do 1 spin
toward the west, but at a less than dizzying speed. During 2014
I went in a few different directions, spending some weeks in FL and
giving speeches in Berlin, Vancouver, and Phoenix, and next in 2015
will speak in Australia in March. In July the 2 main summer meetings that
I usually attend in Europe and U.S. will be held jointly in Orlando, and
many of the researchers from my office will get to go. Angel will
graduate from high school in late May and is learning a lot about
capitalism. Her employer made her work on Christmas eve, Christmas
day, New Year's eve, and New Year's day, with no extra pay, and forced the employees
to sign a form saying that they would be fired if they did not show
up. Merry Christmas from Ronald McDonald.
At my office we had many changes in
2014. Two years ago USDA began to privatize our dairy genetic
evaluation service and also combined the animal science and plant science
institutes at Beltsville into 1 center. Last April they announced
that our laboratory would be merged with another and the leader of that
lab would become our boss, despite being 1 pay grade lower and doing much less
research than the scientists in our lab. Then in
October USDA merged the regional research offices into larger
areas, forced the Beltsville director who decided on our
lab merger and privatization to retire, and tried
to replace him with a director from TX who left after 1 week on the
job, and then replaced him with another director. Now all of my 5 immediate
bosses have poor to mediocre research records, and all are new to their jobs
within the past 2 years. In October the dairy industry hired the director
of the international bull data exchange system from Sweden to manage
the U.S. privatization effort, but that transition is going
slow and us bureaucrats are still doing most of the work.
At home I spend most of my time on the
computer but try to keep active to keep my mind off of office politics.
For the last 3 years my log book shows:
2014 2013 2012 Activity
520 425 472 miles
of biking
122 157 116
miles of running
654 668 433
laps of swimming
16
15 11 hours of
basketball
4
8 6
hours of lifting weights
5
3
0 hours of tennis
Today is a bit too chilly to begin 2015
activities and the community center is closed, so it was a good chance to send
some news. Thank you for sending yours, and hope that our next lap around
the sun brings another 365 good days your way.
Paul
Hello in the New Year
(2013 Annual Report)
Jan 1, 2014 at 9:17 PM
Dear siblings
Greetings and thank you for the letters, news,
and pictures from 2013. The Winship family photo was impressive with some
new faces in the group to create future demand for agriculture. The year was
less eventful here so my report will be short. Mark listed many
reasons for moving to MI, but most did not seem as logical as the reasons
I have heard for moving to FL, except the one about being closer to family that
did make more sense than being further away. Cheryl and Angel are pleased with their
choice and do not miss the winter snow as much as you might expect.
At USDA I have 5 employees now so am keeping
busy organizing more research and still doing lots of computer programming
directly. This fall we celebrated having 500,000 animals genotyped
with a pizza party, and many farmers are now paying about $40 each to get
DNA inspections for their whole herds. Also farmers in many other countries are
getting genomic predictions from us because that service is either not
available or not as accurate there because of smaller databases. My
current research is deriving methods to analyze full sequence data (3 billion
ACGT letters) for each animal because about 500 bulls are now fully sequenced
and many of the exact mutations are being located. After finding those it is
extremely cheap to genotype the mutation site for all other animals, and the
Supreme Court in 2013 made it possible for any U.S. company to read the
DNA without worrying about patent fights, but the genotyping companies do
a lot of foreign business where patents are still enforced so cannot
yet take full advantage of the technology.
The holidays were peaceful and productive here
even if peace on earth has not reached everyone yet. I hope that 2014
is a good year at your current or new location and for your families. Have
a nice new year.
Paul
Happy 2012 (Annual Report)
Jan 2, 2012 at 9:18 PM
Dear siblings
Best wishes for the new year. Only a short
report from me now because more news will arrive in the next weeks or
months. December 31 was the last day of work for my boss Duane Norman after 42
years in our office. He was promoted to research leader in
1988 when they hired me to fill his previous scientist job. Nobody
knows yet who they will promote this time to research leader or if we can hire
another scientist because we are under a hiring freeze. The agriculture
research budget decreased 9% last year and 12% this year, and the
candidates campaigning in Iowa all hope to make more drastic cuts in
the future. During the last 7 years, 7 positions have already
been cut from the 22 employees we had before, at a time when our
duties greatly expanded to include direct analysis of DNA from several
countries (USA, Canada, Great Britain, and Italy). One other scientist George
has been here longer than me but his research has not had as
much impact. Neither of us can get any salary increase from a promotion
because we are both already at the legal limit. Therefore being named the
leader might be just more hassle and less research even tho
it sounds nice.
Christmas and New Year were spent here with
Charlee and her kids, whereas Thanksgiving was on a nice cruise in the
Carribean with just Cheryl and Angel. Not many business trips for a while
because our travel budget was cut in half last year and further cut this
year. Not sure who is creating all of those large government deficits,
because our group has not seen many of the proceeds here recently. Hoping
your budgets all improve in 2012 and that you continue to be the leaders in
your families and communities. Have a great year.
Paul
2011 Summary
Nov We cruised to Bahamas, St Thomas, and
St Maarten.
October Angel went to her 1st homecoming
dance.
August I went to the Interbull meeting in Norway.
August Angel’s first day of high school ended early
with a 5.9 earthquake!
August One week later, Angel had no high school for
2 days because of hurricane damage.
July We went to New Orleans for the Dairy
Science meeting.
July Angel got a summer job as a camp
counselor at age 13.
June Angel went to sewing camp for 2 weeks in
Landover, MD.
April We cruised to Bahamas and went to
Orlando.
March I went to an Interbull Workshop in Guelph,
ON Canada
2010
Summary
Nov We
cruised from NJ to Haiti and Caribbean for 9 days.
August We vacationed in Orlando.
August I went to World Congress on genetics of livestock in Germany.
July I
went to Dairy Science meeting in Denver.
June I
went to Interbull meeting in Latvia and to niece Gabriele’s wedding.
June Cheryl,
Charlee, Angel, and Elexys vacationed in Orlando.
March We
went to Interbull Workshop in Paris, and Angel tried to practice her French.
Feb We
survived the worst blizzards ever in MD.
2009
Summary
Nov Cheryl
and Angel went to Mall of America in MN for Angel’s birthday.
Sept Angel
volunteered as office helper for the whole 2009-10 school year.
August I went to Interbull and EAAP meetings in Barcelona, Spain.
August We vacationed in Myrtle Beach, SC.
July I
went to Dairy Science meeting in Montreal, Canada.
May We
went to Interbull meeting in London.
2008
Summary
Dec We
went to Paris for an Interbull meeting, went to EuroDisney, and flew back via
Germany.
Nov We
went to Grandma Katie’s memorial service in IL.
August Angel won the hula hoop contest at Myrtle Beach, SC.
July Angel
went to 4 weeks of summer swim camp in College Park, MD.
July We
vacationed with Charlee at Williamsburg, VA.
June I
went to Interbull meeting at Niagara Falls.
June Angel
graduated from 5th grade at Piney Orchard.
April Angel
sang in cherry blossom parade in DC with National Youth Chorus.
March Cheryl
and Angel went by train to vacation in Orlando.
2007
Summary
August I went to Interbull meeting in Ireland.
August We vacationed in Myrtle
Beach, SC.
August Angel had a 2-week summer camp in Beltsville, and 2-week swim
camp in College Park.
July I
went to Dairy Science meeting in San Antonio.
July Angel
and I attended aunt Deb’s wedding in IL and visited downtown Chicago.
June Angel
had chorus, hip-hop, and violin concerts in the same week.
March I
went to Brazil to speak at a conference.
March We
went to Paris for 4 days for an Interbull meeting.
Feb I
went to IL for a few days.
2006
Summary
Dec Angel
played in a violin concert and sang in the chorus at school.
August I went to the World Congress on genetics of livestock in Brazil.
July We
went to Indianapolis for the Dairy Science meeting.
June I
attended the Interbull meeting in Finland.
April We
moved within Odenton, MD from Seven Oaks to Piney Orchard.
April Angel
presented her science fair project on nutrition of peanuts and shells.
Feb I
attended an Interbull Workshop in Netherlands.
January Angel played violin in grade school concert.
2005
Annual Report, 2006 Plans
Sent: February 4, 2006
Dear family
Now that
Mom and Miriam are both back from their vacations I'm sending my
approximately annual update letter. Last year I predicted that 2005 would
be 5% happier than 2004, and while the exact increase may have varied from
place to place and person to person, the expected increase is about 5%
again for 2006. Christmas day in 2005 was much improved because, instead
of 200,000 dead from a tsunami in 2004, we had just one slip on the ice in
Rockford and one computer crash in Odenton. Please do your part to make sure
that the remaining months of 2006 are at least 5% happier than the
corresponding months a year ago.
Charlee
completed her B.A. degree last summer and she, Elexys, and Samira
are doing well. Her kids are 6 and 4 now. Angel is 8 and in
3rd grade. She takes hip hop dance classes after school and plays violin during
school. I brought Grandpa Ellis's violin here but still haven't had it
re-strung because it's a little longer than the school's violins and would be
harder for her to play. Angel played in the school concert last
month.
In
October Deb also loaned me the VanRaden family history book written in German
by Rudolf VanRaden from Rosenheim Germany that Irvin brought back in 1988.
I've been slowly putting together the pieces from das worden ich verstehe. The
long scroll at Deb house traces the history of people named VanRaden, von
Rhaden, and von Rahden back to 1271, but our earliest known ancestor born about
1700 is not necessarily connected to the earlier families. The book is almost
100 pages and includes stories and pictures about what our ancestors did and
where they lived, a marriage certificate from 1754 (the wedding was in
great-great-great-great-great-great-grandma's house), some handwritten letters
in German sent by Engelke and his father Antony from Forreston in 1869 and
1870 to Antony's oldest son and two daughters that
stayed in Germany, and a whole bunch of our cousins including a picture of
Rudolf in his Nazi uniform taken in 1944 in Norway. Perhaps I should send
copies of the more interesting pages to each of you.
On February 24
I'll be at Mom's place after a Milwaukee meeting Feb 23 but can only stay
until Sat morning the 25th because I need to get ready for a trip to Amsterdam
the next week. Also I have meetings in Brazil and Finland this summer and am
traveling more because I'm the US representative to the international bull
ranking service (Interbull) since last year. Cheryl is still nervous about
flying but might go along to Brazil. Angel says: Happy Valentine's day!
Paul
2005 Summary:
Nov We
had Thanksgiving vacation at Great Wolf in Williamsburg, VA.
October I spoke at a conference in Cremona, Italy.
July I
went to the Dairy Science meeting in Cincinnati.
July Angel
and I went to see the ocean with Uncle Mark and Aunt Deb.
June I
attended an Interbull Workshop in Sweden.
June Cheryl,
Charlee, Angel, Elexys, and Samira went to FL.
2004
Summary
July I
went to the Dairy Science meeting in St Louis.
July 4 Angel jumped off the diving board 15 times and then taught me
how to dive.
May I
went to an Interbull meeting in Tunisia.
April Angel
and I went to VA Beach with Uncle Mark and Aunt Miriam.
Feb Angel
learned to roller skate.
January I went to Sweden for an Interbull committee. Very short daylight
there.
2003
Summary
Sept We
attended cousin Tonya Heeren (Wiersma)’s wedding in IL.
August Angel fell asleep during her 1st day of 1st
grade.
August Angel put her first tooth under the pillow and got $1.25 from the
tooth fairy.
June I
attended the Dairy Science meeting in Phoenix.
May We
went to Orlando for a week to celebrate our 8th anniversary.
March Our
USDA laboratory hosted an Interbull workshop on new traits.
Feb We
played in 28 inches of new snow, the most ever in 1 storm.
2002
Summary
October Angel won the contest for most original Halloween costume.
Sept Angel
won the cutest kid contest (1st out of 11) at Anne Arundel County Fair.
Sept Angel
began kindergarten.
August I attended the World Congress on genetics of livestock in France.
August I flew from France to the animal breeders (NAAB) meeting in
Milwaukee.
August Cheryl, Charlee, Joseph, Angel, Elexys, and Samira vacationed in
FL.
July I
attended the Dairy Science meeting in Quebec.
June Angel
danced in front of hundreds of people.
Feb We
cruised to Haiti, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and St Thomas.
2001
Summary
Dec Angel
asked Santa for a doll, a jump rope, a hula hoop, a new car, and a fish (4 out
of 5 is a pretty good Christmas).
Sept A
tornado went over me in my car, hit our office, and closed that for 3 days.
Sept Angel
began going to dance and tap classes.
July I
attended the Dairy Science meeting in Indianapolis.
June Charlee
had her second daughter, Samira.
June We
vacationed for a week in Orlando for Cheryl’s birthday.
2000
Annual Report
December 20, 2000
Dear
family and friends
Happy holidays and best wishes for your new millennium. The
year 2000 was a good one for me excluding the last month or so. Thanks to those
of you who helped get me back to higher ground after I somehow stumbled into a
depression. In the last year I gave up work on my book The Right To Migrate,
but began other hopeless attempts to do impossible things. Maybe in the future
I should stay on level ground instead of climbing to new heights and then
falling to new lows.
My work at USDA went fairly well this year except a few
emergency fixes of data we reported for foreign bulls. We try to rank all the bulls
from 25 nations four times a year. That’s not easy because some traits are
missing and we have to guess at them and our guess programs didn’t work right.
The rest of my projects were well received and most of the farmers like our new
rankings. In July, I received a national award for my research and a pay raise
up to the highest grade that most scientists get to (GS-15).
On New Year’s eve last year, I began inventing a new piano keyboard.
The current keyboard is okay but not great and was designed in about 1350 AD.
Every piano and organ since then was tuned with 7 notes per octave on the white
keys and 5 notes per octave on the black keys because the pattern is uneven. A
new keyboard with evenly spaced keys is desperately needed so that users can
tune the keys (electronically) with evenly spaced, simpler math using more or
fewer notes per octave. The new keyboard requires new music notation, so I
worked on that, and then made an audio tape called “The Theory of Music” to
explain the new system.
Last spring I noticed that the theory of gravity might be
up-side down so began research on that also in my spare time. Instead of
pulling on each other, pairs of masses might simply be blocking very small
(ether) particles that would have hit the other mass. According to this new
theory, an apple drops because it is pushed from above instead of pulled from below.
Near earth, many of the particles that would have hit the apple from below are
blocked. The fraction of particles blocked by any mass declines in proportion
to the square of its distance away, giving the same math as Newton’s or
Einstein’s theories. I have not yet shared this exciting, new theory with
anyone in physics or astronomy, but maybe some day they will be ready.
In May, Cheryl and I celebrated our 5th wedding
anniversary with a trip to Las Vegas. Staying together also seems hopeless sometimes
but the probability that we’ll stay married is actually fairly high compared to
some of my other projects. Angel turned 3 in November and is attending day care
three days a week while Cheryl works part time. Neither of them spend any time
helping Daddy with his new theories. Someday, Paul hopes to aim carefully and
throw a snowball at hell and knock the devil out cold and give everyone a Merry
Christmas.
1999 Report
April 1999
Dear family and friends
Merry Christmas. This letter was about half written in
December but at that time I had more bad news than good news so I waited for
something good to report. The bad news is that USDA wants to fire me. The
government teaches all bureaucrats to believe that everyone should have equal
opportunity and civil rights, but it also says we should never hire any
foreigners. I walked out of the government’s civil rights class because I can’t
pretend that hiring only Americans is fair. I would rather be fair to
foreigners.
The other reason I don’t write much is that I tend to write
sermons that nobody wants to hear. For example, our government could just treat
people as people instead of forcing me to totally discriminate against the
majority of people. At a meeting in Australia last year, I met a Philippine
woman studying in Canada using computer programs written by a German and an American
(Ina and me) to analyze Norwegian salmon data. Some of the salmon may actually
have been Swedish citizens that swam up the wrong stream, but I won’t tell on
them if you won’t. End of sermon.
Angel is almost 1.5 now and she’s doing okay. All little
kids seem about the same to me, but some people think they can see differences
at this age. For example, cousins Andrea and Gabriele, after close inspection,
claimed that “Angel is one of the cutest kids ever!” Their mother said Angel is
adorable, she looks mighty cute.” She’s still kind of cute even after pulling a
hot iron down off of the counter and hitting herself in the eye with it. She
was happy to entertain visitors Miriam and Bob and also Deb and grandma Katie
last year. She likes people.
Cheryl and I don’t let Angel slow us down too much. During
1998 we went to Illinois, Colorado, and New Jersey. Then Cheryl and some
friends took her to South Carolina, and grandma Dora and Cheryl went to Florida.
In October, Angel will be two and then she’ll have to buy a ticket too instead
of flying for free. Because of this, Cheryl and I decided to take a big
four-continent cruise with her this year in April/May. From Miami we go most of
the way to South America and then the ship turns left to Africa and then left
again to Spain and Italy.
No one on Paul’s side of the family has sailed across the
Atlantic since about 1850 and on Cheryl’s side of the family from about 1750. One
of the more exotic stops is Casablanca on May 1, but of course you can rent the
movie and pretend you’re there with us for a few dollars instead of spending a
few thousand. Speaking of movies, last night we watched Titanic and Angel cried
when the ship went down. So we’ll sail south to avoid the icebergs.
Sincerely,
Paul, Cheryl, and Angel VanRaden
1997 Annual Report
December 1997
Dear family and friends
Happy holidays to everyone. Hopefully, Santa will bring everyone
everything that we ask for again this year. Last year Paul and Cheryl asked
Santa for a baby (mostly Paul’s idea) but Santa had a busy schedule delivering
all of the gifts and didn’t have time to deliver babies too. So instead of
Santa we wondered if the stork could drop off a baby, but the storks must have
been on strike because time went by and no babies arrived. So we had to make a
baby all by ourselves. The baby arrived in Annapolis, MD, USA on November 13,
1997 weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces (3.27 kilograms) and we named her Angel Lynne
VanRaden. She doesn’t have a halo or wings or any special powers, we just hope
that she’ll try to be as good as a human can be.
In September we moved about three blocks into a nicer
townhome (mostly Cheryl’s idea). Charlee moved about 25 miles to north
Baltimore and is spending her senior year at her father’s house. This summer
she got her driver’s license and then a car and had it for about three days until
it smashed into 2 other cars while she was trying to change its radio station.
On the bright side, at least we have 16 years before Angel asks to borrow the
car keys. Our new address and phone number are listed above and then you can
report your news and your crashes to us.
The job skills that Cheryl learned 17 years ago are still
very useful today. She is enjoying her return to the job of full-time Mom.
After 9 years at USDA, Paul finally has an assistant. For much of the year he had
two. One was a temporary post-doc until USDA got extra funding to continue the
job as a permanent scientist. Then Paul had to fire Yang Da, a highly qualified
researcher with 12 years experience in the US after coming from China and a PhD
from U. Illinois, and replaced him with an American, who everyone agreed was
less qualified, because permanent government jobs are reserved for American
citizens. Yang Da quickly found higher paying work at U. Minnesota so he’s not
too mad at Paul for firing him. Immigrants can’t get Equal Opportunity even
from Paul. Some of them enjoy reading his book The Right To Migrate.
Last summer the four of us, including little kicking unborn
Angel, cruised to Puerto Rico and on the way back we saw the coastline of
Haiti. Not many babies born in Haiti will ever see the coastline of the United
States because we pay the American Navy and Coast Guard to make sure that they won’t.
At Christmas we remember a baby born almost 2000 years ago in the Middle East.
Our little Angel isn’t perfect, but we would love her the same whether she was
born in the Middle East, America, or Haiti. We hope you would too.
Sincerely,
Paul,
Cheryl, and Angel VanRaden
1996 Annual Report
December 6 1996
Dear family
Here are some pictures from a recent trip that Cheryl and I
took to South America and also copies of some very old pictures for you that I inherited.
If you can find similar interesting old photos on the Ratmeyer or Ellis side of
the family then I’ll make copies for whoever else is interested in having a
set. I’ll keep the negatives so if my nieces and nephews want copies for their
own families some day then they can just ask and I’ll make some.
As predicted, my family has less news to report from
Maryland this year than we had last year. The big trip we took to celebrate our
first anniversary wasn’t quite as much fun as the honeymoon trip. Cheryl likes
to shop when we’re on vacation (and also on weekends and after work) and we
didn’t find many bargains, so about the only thing she brought back from South
America was me and a few rolls of film. Charlee is hoping to get a car and a
driver’s license for Christmas. Then Cheryl won’t have to chauffer her to her
job at Wendy’s anymore. The computer and printer that she (we) got for Christmas
last year have gotten a lot of use. My book looks more like a book now and I’ve
sold over 20 copies. Mom is the leading purchaser so far.
Everyone here is fine and we hope each of you have a happy
holiday season.
Sincerely,
Paul et al
1995 Annual Report
December 18 1995
Dear family and friends
Hello and Happy Holidays. The last year was tons of fun
here and I hope that you at least had liters of laughter where you live.
Sometimes I get the urge to go back to the Midwest or the Far East or to your continent
to see you but instead I go back to work and wait for people to come this way.
Mom and Dad and Keith Boldman and Mike Grossman all from Illinois came to visit
this year, so I can’t complain.
In case you wondered what’s been happening in my little
branch of the VanRaden family (or maybe you once knew but don’t remember), here
are the highlights:
January Paul and
Cheryl and Charlee just missed 5 Winships and 1 Levy at Disney World
May 18 Paul and
Cheryl said “I do.”
May 19 Honeymoon, tons
of fun. My old friends Hiroshi, Chen, and Sompop from Iowa helped us see Tokyo,
Beijing, and Bangkok.
June Cheryl
found a new job at a medical clinic
July Charlee
moved to our new house.
November Cheryl found a
better job at a hospital.
November Paul was named
best young scientist in the USDA Agriculture Research Service.
Next year should be less eventful. The main event is that
copies of my book will soon be available for comment. If your schedule for next
year still has some time left for reading, my publisher (Charlee) can send
some. She might need a couple months to get the presses rolling because the
computer and printer are still under the Christmas tree.
Sincerely,
Paul VanRaden
1995 Announcement
February 27 1995
Dear family
Thanks for your letters, pictures, cards, calls, calendars,
checks, etc. Cheryl and I will try to send pictures from time to time. We just
got this engagement picture taken even tho we’ve been engaged for 8 months. We’re
still planning for a little wedding sometime this year and then many years of
companionship, fun, etc.
Also I’m sending a poem that I wrote for Cheryl (at her
request). She got it for her birthday (June 20) and then we sent it to a
National Library of Poetry contest, where it’s a finalist so far.
https://www.paulvanraden.com/I_Found_Cheryl.pdf
Cheryl, Charlee, and I just back from Florida. We hope that
the rest of you had a good time there too. Sorry to you who stayed at home this
winter even if the weather was better than usual. We had 85 degrees and
sunshine in Florida, so I didn’t mind getting a little soaked on Splash
Mountain. Due to meetings on my cow research, I had to stay inside a couple
days, but the rest of the time was fun.
Paul
1994 Announcement
October 8 1994
Dear family
Hello from Odenton, MD. Cheryl and Charlee and I just moved
into our new townhouse here so this letter is to give you our new address and
phone number. Cheryl and I have been engaged for a few months and we plan to
get married in November 1995 with a very small wedding. We have room for
company in our new house if anyone would like to come visit us. Charlee
(Cheryl’s 14 yr old daughter) will be spending part time in Baltimore with her
father and part time with us. She’s attending a special high school with
medical emphasis.
The house is sort of half way between my job in Beltsville
and Cheryl’s top secret job in Columbia. Odenton is about 5 miles south of BWI
airport, so we’ll be able to hear your plane coming. Hope to see you soon, but
you might want to wait until the furniture gets here. Sorry if any paint got on
the letter.
Paul