How about a post that has nothing political in it?
How about a post that is instructional and interesting?
Think I can do it?
Me personally, sometimes I feel like someone is going to have to develop a twelve step program to break the addiction of collecting and repairing these things. Truth be known some of these are highly collectable and some are well, just not.
I am guessing that if one saves them long enough the radios that are not collectable today will be at some point in the future.
To that end, I collect those that are “collectible” today as well as radio’s that are unique or sought after for some reason ie the Owl Radio from Clash of the Titans.
More often than not I will purchase a collection of radio’s from different sources. I might purchase the entire collection because one of the radio’s in that collection is collectable or I might get them because I need parts that I know they will render.
The bottom line is the case must be intact. It must look good with no cracks etc. If it is busted all to hell it turns into a parts piece and devalued substantially.
Today I worked on a radio that was marketed to the US although it is typically marketed to the Russians.
Repaired, aligned and cleaned up….
Someone had worked on it sometime in the past as the slugs were all out of place. I guess it is terribly irresistible to resist putting a screwdriver in the transformers and trimmer caps, as I get more radio’s that have been tweaked, by someone with a screwdriver, instead of the proper alignment tool.
Having said that this radio defies common logic, in that the wire colors that we come to expect over here in the states is backwards. Red which normally denotes positive, was the negative lead and of course that made the black wire positive.
When I first apply power to one of these radios I do so with a variable supply. Turning the radio on first, then slowly increasing the voltage from 0 to whatever the voltage should be whether it be 3,6 or 9 volts or somewhere in between. The trick is to have a power supply with an amp meter.
Most transistor radios draw very little current. If you start to raise the voltage and the current starts to jump and maybe hold at 10 milliamps or so, check your polarity.
Bottom line is that after I figured out that the power leads are opposite of what one might expect the next thing needed was an alignment.
In most radio’s like this you start with injecting a signal at 455khz. After tuning the proper transformer and trimmer cap for this, than I move on to tweaking the rest of them for maximum sensitivity at 1600, 55 and finally around 800khz.
The process takes less than a five minutes and when finished the radio is as good as new.
Most of these vintage electronics need new caps “electrolytic capacitors.” Caps made in the day were expensive so the manufacturers used the minimums that they could get by with. Tracing and/or injecting a signal one can usually tell which if any caps are bad, and within moments, have the audio back to where it should be.
Radio needing new caps.
Some of the newer capacitors on the market are NP or non-polarized! Too often I pull out and old cap to find I did not remember which direction to install the new one as I need to keep the negative and positive leg in the correct holes. With NP caps simply install them and move on.
I suggest that you take pictures before taking too much apart as without a print if a wire pops off, you can have a devil of a time figuring out where it went.
Six transistor radio’s are the most common and really all you need to pull in strong station and actually differentiate between the different stations without too much overlap.
Eight Transistor Radios have much better sensitivity and are able to differentiate strong stations from weak ones thus, you can have much better selectivity. My favorite radio to actually keep batteries in are the 8 transistor variety.
Some manufacturer’s in the day found that they could use the PN junction as a diode but yet claim that they had 10, 12 or even 16 transistors! The unknowing public equated that to the “jewels in a watch.” The more the better and so they had a gimmick until some government agency clamped down on them. If the transistor is being used as a diode it cannot be counted as a transistor.
Ross to name just one of the brands was one of the manufacturers that became famous for this tactic.
Shortly after Bell labs came out with the transistor Raytheon and a company named Idea came out with the first transistor radio. It was know as the Regency TR-1.
These are highly collectible even today. Around $100 might get you one that the case is basically in tact.
This is a nice looking example of the TR-1
Before this portable radio’s were tube based and used two different batteries to play them. One of the I believe was a high voltage battery known as the “B” battery, and one drove the filaments and I think it was 1.5 volts.
I have a few of these but, with no availability of the B battery, I think that other than something to sit on a shelf; it is a waste of time and energy to collect. Your mileage may vary…
If I get enough interest I might post more radio stuff in the future as I work on many of these and it is a hobby.
See, no political rhetoric on this post, I can do it! 🙂
Warning: The following blog contains pictures from the go topless demonstration in New York Today. Some of these shots “that were taken by other people and posted publicly” contain (nipples.)
You were warned…. 🙂
As stated in my letter to “free the nipple,” there are real issues with public nudity.
While I agree that there is a time and a place for everything; I feel that a truculent style of forcing your “agenda,” detracts from the message.
Why do some women want to go around topless?
Is it really an equal rights thing?
Is this an attack on men?
Most men like nipples ladies and I have to tell you that if the laws were only left to men to make, they would be very generous to any lady that wanted to walk around half nude!
I give the respect that I am accorded.
When you choose to dis-respect a segment of the population; you don’t win over very many of them.
I get it, you got publicity and you made the news. Now people like me are spending their time pontificating on the merits of your cause, and how best to solve the issues.
I don’t get the pink mask.
As I stated in my letter to “free the nipple,” men are visually stimulated. (I must admit that nothing in the picture above stimulated me what-so-ever-!) That is the way that we either evolved, or God made us pick your choice; those are the facts! When you expose yourself, you set hormones and other endorphins into action.
A whole host of things happens when we are sexually aroused and visual stimulation for men starts with hormones.
We call it behavior but, in reality, our actions may be partially driven by things out of our control. Things happen automatically that we are not in control of. Chemicals are released which cause us to sweat, pupils dilate, adrenaline is released along with cortisol (the stress hormone) followed by Dopamine the “desire and reward hormone” then comes into play. We have serotonin that causes us to “think about a person” or in this case those “lovely breast,” several times a day!
The list goes on and folks, we are programmed for this action. Had we not been such a puritanical society and ran around naked or “nude,” then I dare say that we would control our “urges much better.”
The argument to allow half-naked folks to run around cart-blanch anywhere should really be addressed by serious people who understand what they are asking.
If you don’t think that what I am saying holds water, then tell me this, why is pornography such a huge issue today?!
Some Men and some women are lost in pornography.Where it used to be restricted by age and content, with the internet there is nothing held back. I find it amazing that with each successive year, each and every magazine took pornography to new lows.
Much like drugs, pin-up girls no longer cut it.
There is an interesting parallel to this and drugs because, if you think about it, both are chemical addictions. With drugs, some of those same hormones are released as well as the action of the drug itself!
Some people cause themselves pain because, endorphins are released that like adrenalin; one can become addicted to them.
From the early days of Playboy, where clover leafs covered the nipples, and maybe a little flash of pubic hair to” gynecologists’ type shots” of inside the vagina or anus! Who thinks that is sexy!?
Where are we headed as a society?
It is clear to me anyway, that you simply can’t just walk around naked, anywhere that you please.
For the same reason drunks who are “recovering,” don’t go where there is booze, people who have issues with porn, or sex addicts, don’t go to strip clubs. It is not fair to everyone to allow you to parade around naked when or where you choose.
On the flip side of the coin, there should be places where such behavior is permitted with adequate signage depicting same.
The bottom line to this is really respect. Ladies from a pragmatic look at things there is little difference in our anatomical makeup and for that, your argument is germane.
Realistically, however; looking at the science involved and how we as humans are “driven;” you can certainly see that unfettered nudity would not work unless you forced the issue making everyone walk around naked! I suspect that after an hour or so, the novelty would wear off and soon; breasts of men and women would look like any other part of them, and a stare would quickly turn into a passing glance, and then into not even noticing.
Ok, I included a few bums for effect…you get the point. These folks are enjoying the outing and looking at the scenery and not staring at each other’s rude bits…
That is a part of human evolution that is simply not there in this country at this time.
Most people are way too hung up on their body, whether it be good or bad, and sexuality is right under the surface of most people’s thoughts.
With the Ashley Madison hack, it should have placed a light on what is going on with people of all walks of life.
SEX SEX SEX!
It is not simply sex, as these folks have a wife or husband who they could have sex with. It is different partners or sex with someone else. WHY?
If we could put our differences aside, just let people be who and what they are and “get along” and, we were not thinking about, planning for, and working towards sex, just think about what we could accomplish as a people!
Is it just me or does this thing appear phallic in nature….?
We are terribly un-evolved for the most part. Those that want to “free the nipple,” I actually think might be more evolved than those that see this as some sort of taboo.You can’t simply feel that it is wrong, you need to know “why it is wrong.” These folks are pushing the envelope on social mores, that admittedly are out of date but…to what end?
If you go to a nudist resort, there will be people there who are probably more evolved than those that would condemn such a place just because. Some will undoubtedly be there for the same reason that I thought about becoming a photographer for Playboy as a child. The difference is, I grew up!
When we accept who and what we are, we can move past this truculent dialogue that persists in the world today. We are in fact sexual creatures that are geared for procreation, and that is why we do what we do, and think as we think. That is why sex feels good, and hormones are released to drive us to seek partners to spread our seeds and subdue the earth.
That is why a high percentage of people will read this blog, over the others that I have posted which frankly are much more intelligent and enlightening than this, and many men will peruse the picture of the attractive redhead, longer than those with the pink mask over their faces! Just know why you do what you do, and know who you are….
Life is about more than sex. As a young person, I expect this and make allowances for this. Spring break and other places where young people gather seem to be nothing more than a hormonally charged group of people oozing with testosterone and estrogen. You hope that they make it through it, and hope that someone in the group is adult enough to govern the collective body, so people don’t get injured.
Spring Break 2016 Daytona
When you become “self-aware,” you learn to ask yourself why?
Why
“Why” is probably one of the most important questions that we learn to ask as a human being. I do not discourage but encourage this.
Why do I like this?
Why do I hate this?
Why is this a good idea?
Why is this a bad idea?
Why did my parents tell me no?
Knowledge is powerful and, self-knowledge is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal!
I call this mirror time. Who is that person in the mirror?
Before espousing your thoughts on a particular subject, know where your thoughts came from.
We as a nation have stopped thinking critically. We act upon emotions which is just stupid. Emotions are one of the easiest ways that there is to manipulate you, and those that are in power; know this.
The Race card is played to divide people and it works because it is an emotionally charged issue.
If I can stir your emotions, I can control you! The elite call these folks, “useful idiots!” They can think for you by stirring your emotions, causing you to act without thinking!
A movement based on a complete lie. While there may be some issues with Police and people this movement which has been the flash-point of much violence and mayhem needs to stop.
If you spend some time in the mirror guess what, they lose that power and you gain it.
Free the Nipple and Go Topless are saying the same thing. Personally, I would not mind seeing everyone wear a shirt. Let’s take this issue off the table, just wear a damned shirt!
If you want to be naked in public, seek out nude beaches or nude resorts or clubs, or even cruises that cater to clothing optional events. There are actually parks in Germany I think that are clothing optional.
Americans are much more prudish than our European counterparts and I am certain that is a left over from the puritan start, this country had not that many years ago. Don’t be disrespectful of them; if you want to be taken seriously, and respected.
With the LGBT community, I have a thought that I would also like to espouse upon.
There are many places “spas” and such where people enter into an area and are expected to remove all of their clothes. They are provided a “uniform” to wear in the common area but not before they are expected to shower and enjoy the wet area with other people who are also nude.
friends Justin Estill age 30 (blond) and Michael Ladagana age 34 of Astoria (dark hair) . Spa castle premier, saunas, and pool. 115 East 57th Street Manhattan NY
It is no secret that there are men who happen to be gay that go to these spas to watch other naked men shower and what have you. Folks, that is simply creepy.
I know from reading, that some women do this as well, and then you have the folks who are Trans gendered, who identify as one sex or another. What do they do?
In these “wet areas” not only are there adults but there are children, naked children who simply are playing in the water and having a good time.
I think that the laws need to be changed to protect children from let’s face it, pedophiles that might be lurking in the area. As an adult, I can choose to go into one of these places knowing full well that there may be some deviant in there that enjoys watching others shower and what have you.
I don’t believe that we have any business exposing children to possible creeps.
While I am on that subject, since gay folks knowingly go into these areas; how about a communal wet area that anyone can decide to use?
It would be interesting to see how many people of different genders would actually take advantage of it.
Once again I have pontificated to the tune of right at 1700 words on a subject that should be rife with stimulating conversation.
As always, I appreciate comments, shares, re-blogs and of course stimulating conversation. Please keep your comments civil. Thanks!
Premature failed LED bulbAs an electronics guy, when something fails I like to figure out what failed and then why.
When lights fail, well they just fail!
Not so much with the CFL or LED variety.
LED bulb with clear dome etched by some sort of out gassing from something.Today I want to examine this bulb, an LED bulb that did not last the advertised amount of time by any stretch of the imagination.
The first thing to notice that there was some sort of out-gassing during its use which adhered to the inside of the plastic dome and actually etched the plastic in such a way that it is no longer translucent but rather opaque even after I cleaned it with 409.
The reason I pulled it apart is that it became dim.
Here you can see the electronics of the LED bulb and possibly you can see the loose leg of the electrolytic capacitor.After disassembling it, I found that the electrolytic capacitor had become un-soldered on one of its legs.
Re-soldering it and re-assembling it, the bulb became bright again for about a minute until it flickered and quit.
Bulb working after repair Same bulb flickering before second failureRemoving and testing the capacitors they were both in tolerance and I suspect OK.
Testing electrolytic cap,Checking the LED’s one by one, I found one that was dead. As I tested each with a DVM the good LEDS would slightly illuminate. 98% of these when biased correctly would illuminate properly. One of them was much dimmer than the rest, and one of them would not light at all.
Dead LED at the end of my thumbIf I were of the mind to, I could replace the dead LED and the dim LED and I would guess I would obtain more hours of life out of the collective bunch of LED’s
LED lights being in series to me says that when one fails, the light is dead and trashed. Much like that lousy string of Christmas lights that are a real bugger to keep going.
Dead bulb from another angle IF you look carefully you can see some brown substance near the end of the last LED, I think that is the chemical that is responsible for the out-gassing and subsequent pitting of the plastic dome.
Does it make financial sense to “repair” light bulbs?
Will dead LED bulbs fill the garbage dumps with the same frequency of regular light bulbs or CFL bulbs?
The good news about LED bulbs is that there is no lead in the solder as it is Tin.
I would be interested in knowing what actually out-gassed from the light during its use?
What actually pitted or etched the plastic?
Looking closely you will see what looks like flux, that suggest that there is heat generated with use.
Here is a closer look at the dead LED and the brown substance.I am thinking about holding on to this bulb and when another like it fails, making one out of two, just because. Is my time worth more than this, of course it is! Does this interest me enough to prove a point? Yes.
While LED bulbs will save you cost in operation, will that cost be offset by the cost and reliability of the bulb? Even though there is a warranty on these bulbs as well as CFL bulbs, do you know anyone that puts a date on them when installed and then keeps up with the sales slip in case they don’t last the warranty? I don’t think that you can prove much, and it would really be up to the benevolence of the store where you purchased them from to replace your product..
I blog for enjoyment. While I write science fiction for authorship; I blog to work on my craft, to enlighten others, and to exchange ideas in a format that is inclusive of all civil discourse.
Some of the pictures I post, I have taken, some I have gleaned from the internet, from one place or another.
Please keep in mind that I have no pecuniary interest in this blog, and make no money from it what-so-ever. Most of this blog is a public service, as I do offer much free advice in the IT arena; I have been at it professionally since 1982.
I would like to think from the numerous e-mails and comments that most of you find it entertaining, and some of the blogs are meant for just that.
Occasionally, someone will search their picture and find that I have posted it. Most of the time I get a message from them telling me that they are glad that I liked it enough to use it, and are surprised how it gets around. Much like the pictures on Pinterest are re-posted by the thousands.
While some may find them cute and cuddly, and some, absolutely disgusting; this rat that I am speaking of is neither.
The rat that I want to educate about is really an acronym for Remote Access Trojan.
Just about everything electronic today has a built in camera. Not to mention a microphone.
Some smart TV’s actually have them built in to allow you to voice command the TV.
Your car may very well have something like this built in.
I have long held that our government could if they wanted, under some obscure interpretation of the Patriot Act, access your camera and or microphone to peek into your home. I have also thought that this could be done with the microphone and camera on most laptops and of course desktops that have them.
Not only is there news of the Feds hacking your cell phones and either listening in or downloading your contact list and other information through something called String Ray but there are theories that your local police may be doing this as well without a warrant! (1)
It is not enough that we may have our government spying on us without warrant but, we have Trojans that copy your keystrokes and send them to some server in Russia, or some other obscure third world country looking for passwords and banking information now we have RATS.
Today we know that perverted individuals out there have in fact used the cameras in laptops handed out by the school to indeed spy on kids in their bedrooms. While this made the news, little attention was really paid to this, as conspiracy nuts are everywhere.
(2) The Case in question
We now know that the Chinese among others have created Trojans that allow them remote access to your camera and or microphone in your laptop! Simply click on the wrong thing and the writer of the software has access to your machine.
One couple received a picture of themselves lying in bed watching a movie on Netflix. This came to them from someone using a made up name, via their Facebook page.
(3) Naked Security Story
You really have to be smart when you are cruising the internet and checking e-mail as the crooks and other creeps are smarter. I have often said that these folks are probably kids sitting around in their mother’s basement in their underwear, writing Trojans, seeing who can outdo the other via groups like Anonymous.
I would like to see devices like phones have an actual on off switch or removable customer replaceable battery. If you want to make certain that the thing is off, remove the power. Apple has made this task about impossible for the everyday user and that is problematic. Placing the device in airplane mode might be your closest bet to protecting your privacy but I would bet that there is a work around for that.
I would also like to see on off switches on cameras and microphones that absolutely can be switched off until required.
The simple truth is we have no idea what these phones are doing in the background and with viruses and Trojans, we have no idea when some remote access Trojan will activate or be activated by some creep in some basement somewhere.
Someone write an app that tells you what the phone is dong or has done.
When you sit back and think that I am a crazy conspiracy nut, I would remind you of the porn scanners that are still in use at some airports today.
Yes, if you invert the negative with any cheap software you get a positive…
Who in their right mind would think that it is ok to use ionizing radiation to undress the public by the tens of thousands for the purpose of what, looking for weapons? We are so politically correct that we can’t profile but we can strip search the public, grope grandma and feel up children! Political Correctness is a way to control the massesand not something that we should be doing as a people. We have free speech, and other than yelling fire in a theater or threatening to kill someone, I would not surrender the first amendment for anything!
Did you read about the whistle blower who worked for the TSA and admitted that it was a big joke to watch people stripped of their clothing and then make remarks and jokes about what they saw? (4) (5)
If I could have any job in the world, currently it would be to be in some position of authority at the TSA! I would love to clean that bunch of people up and while I am at it, assist them with security as currently they are loath to do much right, of course it is the government so …. What do you expect?! They need folks who think outside the box and currently they have a bunch of automatons.
The news media commonly carried stories about the TSA scanner as equivalent to being at altitude for a couple of hours. The lying bastards however did not tell the truth. While pilots do suffer more cases of skin cancers than non-pilots as cosmic radiation is more intense at altitude, it is not the same as ionizing radiation.
To further exacerbate the privacy issue you are undoubtedly aware that cameras are everywhere. You must assume that wherever you are, or whatever you are doing, there may be a camera watching you. Every red light contains cameras that I maintain can and do look at people in cars collecting bio metric data, looking for who is doing what when. These are not the low end cameras that you can buy on-line, these are high end cameras that have good quality optics.
How about some of these cameras:
There is a wifi enabled camera in there. Have you seen these in your hotel room perhaps?
These are just a scant few. These things are tiny and easily concealed. Assume that you have no privacy. If you scratch it in public, chances are someone saw you.
Orwell was ahead of his time, and you my friends need to be aware of this, and act accordingly.
Not terrible long ago I was traveling through Colorado. I love Colorado! The people are great “for the most part,” The air is clean “for the most part,” and the terrain is different in that it is flat to the east and mountainous to the west!
Thirty Five miles south of Greeley the pungent odor of dog crap suddenly overwhelmed my senses. Dog crap is exactly what the odor smelled of but yet I had not been out of the car in a hundred miles or so!
Instinctively I looked at the bottoms of my shoes to find, nothing out of the way there.
I rolled down the window at this point to let the odor out and to my surprise the odor was magnified by thousands. The smell was so profound that my eyes begin to water. There was absolutely no excuse that I could find for the odor. I pressed on hoping that whatever I had passed by on the road would leave as quickly as it began. No such Luck!
The further I pressed on to the north, the more profound the odor became.
Arriving in Greeley for an early meeting was a task as I was having trouble keeping my stomach in check.
Folks, I have worked in some pretty bad places in my days, including around dead burned bodies. This was bad!
Here is the rub, when I was able to turn the conversation around to the town and why it stank the person who I was talking to said and I quote “what smell?”
The issue is that one becomes nose blind to the odor. While it may seem not as bad one day or even hardly noticeable it is not because the odor is any less, it is because the brain tunes it out as normal.
There is theory that it has to do with becoming accustom to your environment and our brains turn off certain signals that would otherwise alert us to some issue as that is a normal odor.
If for example you have animals in your home, you may find that their smells are less objectionable than when you first got them which would indicate that you are doing an OK job at managing their odors.
Surprise, you stink!
I know several people who have too many animals in their homes and when you go over to their house the smells of the animals about knock you over. The people don’t understand or appreciate that those very smells bind with the fabric in their clothes and in their hair and when they are out of that environment at work or some other social event, the odor of their home goes with them, and in some cases in advance of them.
Not terribly long ago I was in a restaurant when an elderly couple came in. As they passed by me the odors of dog overwhelmed the scent of my dinner that was in front of me. The waitress knew them and in greeting them, seating them etc. she asked about how the dogs were doing? Did she ask because of the smell or simply because she was being nice?
So not only do you stink but, your house may very well smell badly as well! Seek your most honest and best of friends to tell you if they smell something out of the way. It is the kind of friend that would tell you that your zipper was down or you had something in your teeth. You need to know!
After researching this I began to wonder, does oxygen (o2) have a smell?
I know that o3, Ozone smells so it begs the question what about o2?
I would have to say yes but because we are oxygen breathing creatures that smell has been “nulled” by our brains. So what it smells like is something we may never know unless we can come up with a “Sniff-o-meter” to tell us if we stink!
I can actually envision this as a Raspberry Pi project, with some kind of sensor that we currently use to detect gases of different types. Assign each chemical some sort of value etc…
Can you imagine some sort of device that we blow into, or rub it against our clothes, or hold it in our armpits, while pressing a button to tell us if we stink!? IT would be nice to have something that would alert you if your house had an odor that you had tuned out as normal. Shark Tank anyone?
As a young person I was fascinated by the movie Fantastic Voyagewhich was released in 1966 as a medical Sci-Fi. The people of the day had some great imaginations.
As I age, I know too many people with cancer of some sort.
Working in Houston Texas for some time, I spent 15 years in the Texas Medical Center working with all sorts of Doctors and other health care professionals, from many different specialties.
The Texas Medical Center photographed on Thursday, May 23, 2013, in Houston. Texas Children’s Hospital is in the foreground. ( Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle )Some things I witnessed, still haunt me in my dreams; and that was some time ago. Occasionally something will stir a vison or a memory from some rogue smell which, will catapult me back to those days of working in the bowels of the medical center, and different hospitals.
Still yet, some things which are puzzling; stay just below the surface of my conscious while I am supposedly there at dinner with friends or watching something on TV or even reading a book, or writing this as I am now, some puzzles are “back ground tasking.”
This morning I was reading about a friend of mine going through cancer treatment when it hit me, most likely we all have cancer cells running around our body.
Cancer cells and “oncologist correct me if I am mistaken” are nothing more than cells that have mutated via an error in the genetic instructions either given to it or, it mis-understood them and erroneously created a cell that is flawed in some way.
When we hear of a cancer we hear of it like “they had cancer of the X.” Fill in the blanks with whatever was effected by the cancer whether it be the breast or prostate or brain or what have you.
The problem with cancer is that we don’t detect it until it has made millions of cells that are duplicates of screwed up cells. The millions of cells turn in to what we know as tumors which are really nothing more than globs of screwed up cells that don’t know how to assimilate into the body so they form a tumor.
What causes this mis-communication between cells can be blamed on many things from smoking to cosmic radiation.
Cancer needs to be addressed at the genetic level and for that we must necessarily understand the genome in its entirety. Once we understand what each little bit of the genome does we can look for errant cells and target them with something like a virus, yes a manmade virus that looks for specific types of cells and kills them.
That technology is in our future but I believe that is where we need to go to stop cancer and other diseases like aids and even the common cold.
My issue with this frankly is our technology always seems to outpace our humanity.
by Snoron.comWhile some doctors in some lab are thinking that they are saving the world, some military minded megalomaniac wants to know how it can be used as a weapon.
This ought to make the generals feel happy…Can we make a virus that only effects the blood type of a certain people or animal or pick your target.
Maybe you want to create a herbicide that only kills a certain plant so you modify this virus to attack the cells or genetics of that particular plant.
The problem is of course that these things mutate and thus are unstable, and thus on the loose can wreak havoc much like the plague or other flu related pandemics of our history. Ebola is one such virus that needs no introduction. Any virus created must contain an expiration date. It must die on its own accord and must be stable.
The cure for cancerand other such diseases I firmly believe will be created in a lab by someone who thinks outside the box.
Most probable this cure will take lives before it cures them, much like radiation took so many lives before it played a part in curing them.
Understanding the genome will open the doors for many opportunities. Stop the aging process and allow people to live really long times. Is that a good thing? I am not certain.
Arrest diseases which currently ravage our humanity in ways that we live with currently but; in decades to come some historian will write: can you believe that people died of things like the flue? How backward!
Friends, some of us are indeed backwards. Those that would seek to weaponized things like the “genome” are backwards.
Those that think that they are somehow special and better than others to the degree of wishing others harm, are backwards.
Great care needs to be applied when exploring the virus that will end up being a cure for such things as all living things on this planet share parts of the genome.
When we understand it, we will see that parts of the human genome contain things that are found in other animals and even the plants.
You can use this argument for evolution or God and creation. I could argue it either way. I tend to believe that there is intelligence in the design of everything that we see so, the scientist in me believes that there is a creator of all things; and we simply don’t understand or comprehend why….
“Cancer the final frontier” is really a misnomer but, it is the beginning of, and the driving force for what will end up either being the salvation of man on this planet, or its demise.
There is much confusion over this. I would like to try and shed a little light on this and see if we cant chase away some of the confusion.
In a nutshell Socialism is basically Robin Hood. Not the cute fox on the Disney version but a bloated bureaucracy that think that they know better than you, on how to spend your money. Some take it further by making laws that you must follow but they don’t have to.
Some elites think that they know what is best for you to eat or not to eat and how you should live and what you should do and or watch etc. China still is this way along with North Korea and most if the Middle East. They take it to an extreme of not allowing their women many if any rights that the males enjoy.
I digress, those who vote for such people that claim socialism as their trademark want free stuff. Indeed the politician will promise their constituents all kinds of stuff and somehow it is the “fat cat bankers” on Wall Street that must pay!
The problem with that however is it is not the fat cat bankers who pay, it is anyone that works for a living and is not satisfied with living in section 8 housing, and sucking on the government tit! People who decided that they wanted better than to live in the hood, buying and selling drugs and learning how to look innocent in a police lineup pay!
Socialism today is portrayed more as a contest between those without and “white privilege!”
If you are white and living in a nice house, you are a bad person because you have stuff, and it should be taken from you! I wish I was making this up but that is the pervasive attitude among those that are the “have nots!” Their votes are purchased by the promise of more free stuff including cell phones!
These have not’s have cell phones, a roof over their heads, air-conditioning and heat, cable TV, Internet and flat screen TV’s! And are under the delusion that they are somehow entitled to it for free pervades their attitude and that of the black life matterscrowd who formed an entire meme on a complete and utter falsehood!The narrative is false! The narrative however makes the news when they push Bernie Sanders off the stage and co-opt his rally to talk down to several thousand “progressive” white folks who actually are on their side!
On this subject “All Lives Matter!” If you have some sort of issue with that open that book that you take to church with you sometime, and find anything in there that delineates between what lives matter and which ones don’t! While some vessels were indeed made to be destroyed guess what, that is not your call, or mine. That one belongs to your creator and has nothing to do with actually killing people on this earth! From inception to natural death, every life matters, and is loved by our lord and anyone that thinks different is in error!
Skin color does not make a person who he or she is and if you don’t think that is so, think again. Character of the person is the most important thing to look for when choosing friends or candidates for political office! Character is all that matters when it comes to someone that you would send to Washington to represent you.
How much of what someone else earns is your fair share?
The answer is not a damned bit of it!
If your neighbor gets his or her ass out of bed in the morning, goes to work faithfully and brings home groceries those are his, for his family, not for you who slept all day. If you need a hand up, great! If it a handout, you best go and speak with the clergy. That is part of their business.
We in fact were made to work. We were designed by God to work. Everything you do in life, do it for his glory! How hard is that to comprehend?
It is hard to love, when you heart is full of hate. It is easy to blame others for your lot in life.
Seriously I continue to see people stoking the race debate and how black people are somehow owed more stuff from white people because we bought you and sold you into slavery. Well, not you personally and not me personally but, 300 plus years ago somebody did and now, somehow we as a nation should pay for it, again!
Correcting the record
Slavery did not start with the Spaniards and Africans.
Slavery began thousands of years ago. Even during the time of Jesus 2000 years ago there were slaves, and it was not divided by color.
Some of the most mistreated slaves of “modern day” were the Irish!
Here is a small excerpt from a blog on Irish Slavery. (1)
King James II and Charles I also led a continued effort to enslave the Irish. Britain’s famed Oliver Cromwell furthered this practice of dehumanizing one’s next door neighbor.
The Irish slave trade began when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. His Proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies. By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves.
Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white.
From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves. Ireland’s population fell from about 1,500,000 to 600,000 in one single decade. Families were ripped apart as the British did not allow Irish dads to take their wives and children with them across the Atlantic. This led to a helpless population of homeless women and children. Britain’s solution was to auction them off as well.
During the 1650s, over 100,000 Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were taken from their parents and sold as slaves in the West Indies, Virginia and New England. In this decade, 52,000 Irish (mostly women and children) were sold to Barbados and Virginia. Another 30,000 Irish men and women were also transported and sold to the highest bidder. In 1656, Cromwell ordered that 2000 Irish children be taken to Jamaica and sold as slaves to English settlers.
Many people today will avoid calling the Irish slaves what they truly were: Slaves. They’ll come up with terms like “Indentured Servants” to describe what occurred to the Irish. However, in most cases from the 17th and 18th centuries, Irish slaves were nothing more than human cattle.
As an example, the African slave trade was just beginning during this same period. It is well recorded that African slaves, not tainted with the stain of the hated Catholic theology and more expensive to purchase, were often treated far better than their Irish counterparts.
African slaves were very expensive during the late 1600s (50 Sterling). Irish slaves came cheap (no more than 5 Sterling). If a planter whipped or branded or beat an Irish slave to death, it was never a crime. A death was a monetary setback, but far cheaper than killing a more expensive African. The English masters quickly began breeding the Irish women for both their own personal pleasure and for greater profit. Children of slaves were themselves slaves, which increased the size of the master’s free workforce. Even if an Irish woman somehow obtained her freedom, her kids would remain slaves of her master. Thus, Irish moms, even with this new found emancipation, would seldom abandon their kids and would remain in servitude.
In time, the English thought of a better way to use these women (in many cases, girls as young as 12) to increase their market share: The settlers began to breed Irish women and girls with African men to produce slaves with a distinct complexion. These new “mulatto” slaves brought a higher price than Irish livestock and, likewise, enabled the settlers to save money rather than purchase new African slaves. This practice of interbreeding Irish females with African men went on for several decades and was so widespread that, in 1681, legislation was passed “forbidding the practice of mating Irish slave women to African slave men for the purpose of producing slaves for sale.” In short, it was stopped only because it interfered with the profits of a large slave transport company.
England continued to ship tens of thousands of Irish slaves for more than a century. Records state that, after the 1798 Irish Rebellion, thousands of Irish slaves were sold to both America and Australia. There were horrible abuses of both African and Irish captives. One British ship even dumped 1,302 slaves into the Atlantic Ocean so that the crew would have plenty of food to eat.
There is little question that the Irish experienced the horrors of slavery as much (if not more in the 17th Century) as the Africans did. There is, also, very little question that those brown, tanned faces you witness in your travels to the West Indies are very likely a combination of African and Irish ancestry. In 1839, Britain finally decided on it’s own to end it’s participation in Satan’s highway to hell and stopped transporting slaves. While their decision did not stop pirates from doing what they desired, the new law slowly concluded THIS chapter of nightmarish Irish misery.
But, if anyone, black or white, believes that slavery was only an African experience, then they’ve got it completely wrong.
Irish slavery is a subject worth remembering, not erasing from our memories.
The simple facts are that all through history people have been repressed by a ruling class.
North Korea currently to date is a xenophobic country that keeps its people in the dark to control them, and of course, if we really knew what was going on there would be public outcry! Those people are slaves and they are lied to by their government. If you could talk to them they would tell you that they are happy, and love their dear leader and the rest of the world is the “great Satan! “ Why, their entire environment is controlled. No internet, social media, nada.
During WWII the Japanese people were lied to as well. They were so brainwashed that the kamikaze pilot was born. Not only were the pilots brainwashed but, the Japanese people were brainwashed to the extent that as the American forces captured an island the indigenous people would throw their babies off of the cliffs, and then jump after them committing suicide! Why, what were they told that would cause this. They were made to believe that Americans were so bad, so depraved that they would “eat them alive!” Now you can laugh at that but, they must have been convincing as the preponderance of evidence is astounding! Propaganda works!
My whole point to this is “seek the truth.” If you listen to the race baiters who profit by lying to you, your future is grim. I think Dr. Carson has a great message and it is my fervent prayer that Americans of all walks of life, will listen to him.
Image #: 21630241 Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, speaks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, March 16, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES – Tags: POLITICS HEALTH) REUTERS /JONATHAN ERNST /LANDOV
This of course was my prayer for Obama. Here Americans elected a black president! Wow, how uplifting is that! And before his first month in office he systematically brought race relations back 60 years! “They acted stupidly! If I had a son he would look just like Trayvon.” When Ferguson occurred he once again vilified the cops who in the end were spot on correct, but yet the lie continues! Hands up, don’t shoot!
Chris Rock and others of his ilk are out there promoting hate and discontent. How absolutely insidious are his actions they should be and to me are tantamount to yelling fire in a theater! When you reach “celebrity status” that comes with responsibility! Start by telling the truth and if you think what you are telling is the truth, pick up a damned book! If you are too lazy to read, send me a note, and I will fill you in on the details!
By the way, black people sold black people into slavery, do you really think that a bunch of short white guys went running around the jungles of Africa among the head hunters of the time, rounding people up to put them on ships!?
Warring tribes took prisoners and sold them as you might sell cattle to the Spaniards, and others for things like colorful beads.
The simple facts and the truth is that some of history is ugly! The human race has done some horrible things and it still continues to this day. Watch the news for a little bit and you will shake your head. To quote one of my friends, “that is messed up!” What do you do? You read it, understand what happened and do your best to keep it from happening again. Speaking of slaves do you know how they were controlled as a people? They were kept ignorant. It was unlawful to teach them to read. Sound familiar?
So, aren’t you glad that slavery is over, dead, gone and buried!?
Well let me ask you this, is it?
I know people with a college degree working for peanuts. They can’t even find full time work! Why is that do you suppose?
I know, they are not looking hard enough.
Maybe they are not that smart.
Maybe there is nothing in their line of expertise available.
There are in fact three basic facts in this country today, which contribute to the problem.
Outsourcing
Immigration
Obamacare
When the internet really became a global thing it made it much easier to outsource. Instead of creating a PVC or permanent virtual circuit that you would create through the local Telco’s and other communication giants, now you simply create a VPN or Virtual Private Network through the internet.
What effect did that have you ask? Instead of paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month for connectivity you simply put in one T1 line direct to the internet and with the trick of software and encryption, you utilized the public infrastructure to move data, voice, streaming audio and so forth around the world! With this technology I can send a phone to a worker in the Philippines and when someone calls it on my business network, in the states; it will ring in the Philippines on that persons’s desk. If I want to have a meeting with my workers in Bangladesh, I simply initiate a video conference, and I am there!
If I am a technology company that creates software for companies here; I send out a smartly dressed and well-spoken person to represent my company. He or she gets the contract, collects the SOW (statement of work) and works with my project manager here who directs the actual programming efforts in India, where my labor cost can be better managed (much more cheaply than programmers here in the states.)
I then can compete with my American counterpart where he is using American programmers, I can win the bid because I can undercut him or her by tens of thousands of dollars, and still make good profit for my company. The American company has no idea that his program is being worked on outside of the states.
Let’s say I am a huge computer company and I need support people. Once again I have that VPN with the VOIP telephones (voice over IP) set up on desk in call centers all over the world. You call for help, and you are talking to KIM or Paul or John which are pseudo names for “Peggy in Siberia” whose real name has more consonants than vowels.
Why do you think computer support via phone starts out with unplug the computer first? They have a script that they must follow that was created from thousands of support calls.
Now let’s say I am that same computer company but I need some engineers, actually here in the states.
American workers want 6 figures and are probably worth it but, why pay that for one when I can pay that for 3? So I go to the lobbyist that gave money to some senator indirectly from me and tell them that I need more H1-B workers. He remembers me because I gave money to him for his “person” so, he goes to them and puts a bill in front of them that he or they wrote for him, saying that we need more technical people because “there are simply no skilled people in this country, our education system has simply failed!”
Within months the limit is raised a few more thousand and I get a dozen or so highly trained engineers from some country that hates Americans, but loves our freedoms! Of course I get them for the cost of what I could only afford two or three Americans!
Now you have all of the highly trained people who are Americans that can’t find work so what do they do? They go on the government tit if they can, or they take some lower paying job and try to make ends meet. Well, they were used to $100 thousand a year but, Home Depot is only paying $10 an hour, and only part time (anything less than 32 hours) because well, there is this pesky new health care law that would force them to pay for health care or pay fines for full time employees.
So this highly skilled person who has been replaced by three H1-B people seeks two part time jobs in retail! Still part time and his average yearly pay went from $125K to $30K,working two part time jobs! He or she has to use their 401 prematurely suffering a healthy early withdrawal tax to make ends meet.
Oh and by the way he or she has to pay for health care because it is now a law and because they are rich making $30K a year their health care cost is $526 a month.
Their kids who just graduated college can’t find work in their field so they too are working retail but their health care is only $210 a month because they are only making $12K and yes, still living in the bedroom that they grew up in and still eating mom and dads groceries, using their internet and air conditioning and water and complaining because they are asked to load the dishwasher!.
In competition for these jobs driving the labor prices down even further are millions of “undocumented workers” who get free health care, WIC and other government subsidies.
I don’t know, do you think slavery is a dead and gone thing. How is that socialism working out for you?
That is the progressive agenda you know…
The good folks in congress and certainly 1600 Pennsylvania Ave don’t want you to know how this all works though. So, they draw your attention by strange happenings including Hillary Clintons e-mail which I would bet money is being “rolled under the bus” by the white house, as a distraction!
The following is a link to the blog on Irish Slavery that is a good read.
The simple facts are the more truth that you know, the less you can be fooled by those that wish to keep the masses ignorant and dependent. This is not an R or D thing, or a white and black thing, but a character thing. I encourage everyone to read and know history before we repeat it. Communism and Socialism cannot work for the people. It only benefits those in the Ivory towers who could care less about you and your problems. They want your vote, and would do away with the Constitution if they could, thus doing away with the need to even talk at you.
As many of you know, I am somewhat of a foodie. While I am not near the cook that I would like to be, I have traveled enough and have eaten at so many different places in my lifetime, critiquing restaurants is second nature.
Eating out to me anyway, should be a treat, and not the norm; as let’s face it, it is expensive. Dave Ramsey once said in one of his courses, the only way that you should be inside a restaurant is “you are working there!” Dave and I disagree on this point.
Life is short, so an occasional foray into an eating establishment should be acceptable. Even if you have to budget for it with disposable income. That is why I don’t want to waste my money and or time in some place that is supposed to be good, and it disappoints.
Upon entering the parking lot around 6, there were few if any places to park. It looked as though Valet Parking was going to be the way that I went until, as if on que, someone pulled out right in front of me.
If you get there at dinner time you might want to anticipate Valet parking. I will do that as I don’t want to detract from my dining experience by looping parking lots, in some sort of conga line looking for a place to park.
Once inside it was standing room only, even though we had a reservation. You must have six (6) or more to qualify for one.
Inside the building there is absolutely no place to stand without being underfoot of the servers, wait staff and other patrons. There are tables by the front door in very close proximity to where people are waiting for tables. When I say very close, imagine sitting at dinner and having someone standing within a foot of your table talking with their party complaining about the wait. To me this is unacceptable. Not only for the people who are now eating as you can hear everything that they are talking about but, for the patrons waiting to be seated.
While our table had been vacant, they had to make sure that they had someone to cover it before they sat us. This process took about 25 minutes which one might expect without reservations. If there had been a comfortable waiting area it might have been less objectionable.
The wait staff once seated was amicable. Getting our drinks took a little too long for me but the group that I was with seemed pleased with the outcome. I was the DD or designated driver, so I ordered a soft drink. The soft drink came in the original can, that was warm!
Folks! I expect that from a greasy spoon, not from a restaurant of this quality. Not only am I pouring my own drink from a can that I would buy in the store for .25 cents but, I know that I am going to at least pay $2 for the privilege and there will be no re-fills! Canned drinks have a “can taste” and I typically will not buy them that way for that reason.
I ordered the table side Guacamole which could not be made “table side” as there was no room. It was prepared somewhere else however, they had forgotten about it and we had to remind them, 30 minutes after the fact. Yes, they were busy but, so what! If they can’t handle “busy,” people will vote with their feet and find other places that can.
I ordered:
BANANA LEAF WRAPPED SCOTTISH SALMON – 20
Rubbed with achiote, citrus & grilled. Served with morita whipped potatoes, sautéed chayote & mango-lemon grass mojo.
The presentation was nice and 180 degrees different than a can of soda. The lemon grass mojo was placed on top much like a scoop of ice cream might sit atop pie. I tasted it and was non to thrilled with it, off to the side.
The Salmon itself was cooked well, soft and tender as it should have been. The whipped potatoes were light and fluffy with good taste, again as one would expect.
Part of the lemon citrus grass came with some sort of sauce that circled the potatoes in the bottom of the serving dish, much like a sauce. Dipping the salmon in this produced and un-expected treat as the flavors coalesced to make a whole new taste for salmon.
The salmon was covered in “achiote”which is a red seasoning. It is actually more than just a seasoning but a dye that is used for other reasons than for culinary work. Much like eating cucumbers, this was the seasoning that kept giving for hours after the meal was over.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give this place a 3.
While it was clean, it was way too crowded; and the overall appeal of this place just is not enough to encourage me to fight the crowd again. The price was middle of the road but the canned soft drink really was a deal breaker. To me this is like buying a good looking car and putting a small gutless engine in it. If you are going to go to the trouble of producing quality food, purchase a blooming soda dispensing machine so no soft drink cans are ever seen and, the glass can be easily re-filled. On top of that folks, soda taste much better out of a machine, than a can! By the way, does anyone else see the issue here with the name “made from scratch” and a canned drink!? Is it just me?
Not all of us consume alcohol! Some of us actually prefer to maintain our senses and be able to drive after the meal is over.
No review would be complete without a critique of the drinks however; so, I am happy to inform you that while I personally did not imbibe, those that did had more than one, and were complimentary of the drinks, flavor and presentation.
I think if they would change their policies to “reservation only” during certain busy times, they could please more people and have less people standing on top of other patrons. Managing traffic in a restaurant is critical to pleasing the guest, as well as managing your staff. This place has the ability to easily be a 4 star restaurant, with their quality of food.
Questions to those who for some reason think that they are good enough to run for president of the most powerful country in the world.
Dr. Carson and Dr. Paul, as you both have taken an oath to do no harm; how can you as the president, give the call to obliterate people, in the event of war? Is that not “harm?”
Image #: 21630241 Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, speaks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, March 16, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES – Tags: POLITICS HEALTH) REUTERS /JONATHAN ERNST /LANDOV
Could you see yourselves giving the call to drop nukes on a people if they were a threat to the homeland? If there was a call at 3AM, would you be there to answer it?
Mr. Sanders, As a self-proclaimed Socialist, how can you stand in front of the American people and ask those of us that work, to give an equal amount or more to those that “don’t want to work?” History has taught us time and time again that socialism does not work!
What part of that which you did not work for is your fair share?
Mr. Trump, how can you expect to run an entire country and have the time to run your businesses? Would we as a people not be electing a “part-time” president?
Mrs. Clinton, really! How stupid do you think that the American people are? You clearly are not “broke.” You know the “art of the deal” as well as Mr. Trump; why don’t you simply retire and enjoy what your speeches and other political arrangements have done for you both. Do you really feel that the country would benefit under 4 or 8 more years of Clinton rule and if so “why……..?”
Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina speaks during the Women’s Conference of Florida luncheon held in Tampa, Thursday, March 19, 2015. Fiorina is founder of the Unlocking Potential Project a conservative based political action committee. (AP Photo/The Tampa Bay Times, Octavio Jones) TAMPA OUT; CITRUS COUNTY OUT; PORT CHARLOTTE OUT; BROOKSVILLE HERNANDO TODAY OUT
Carly, how would you deal with the massive amounts of debt? I would like to see a detailed plan of how you intend to turn this train wreck around before the US goes the way of Greece!
I fail to see why politicians, and even our all-knowing media has not put the problem together for the American people. The media tends to take this as separate issues and it is really all of the same issue.
The smoke screen
Economy
Jobs
Immigration
Obama Care
Companies flood the high tech workforce with H1-B workers and even get some from student Visas thus, bringing the supply and demand down to a manageable level where companies can afford to pay lower wages for high tech employees.
Illegals or undocumented workers flood the work force. They say that they only take jobs that Americans would not take but, that is why there are 47 million on food stamps. That is why black unemployment is much higher than white unemployment. Simple economics and no one gets it.
With Obama Care, companies responded by only hiring part time thus doing away with having to pay for Obama care or some other kind of government imposed health care or government fines. That drove the unemployment numbers down because companies needed twice as many part time folks to get the job done. They are trying to mask the problem by pushing the minimum wage up to make the difference but, that will only raise the cost of goods and services as well as drive the small business owner out of business.
Der Untergang der Titanic
So candidates, how would you fix this mess without running this ship into an iceberg?
Some of you have said that we must once again raise the age group for the folks who draw Social Security and even means test it. To those of you who don’t follow political speak; that means that if you are anywhere above poverty in your old age, let’s say you planned ahead unlike our government. Well, you don’t qualify for the money that you paid into the system all of those years!
Mr. Huckabee is right on this. That is theft!
UNITED STATES – AUGUST 29: Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., addresses the Republican National Convention in the Tampa Bay Times Forum on the night Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., republican vice-presidential nominee, delivered a speech to the crowd. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Don’t you think it terribly narcissistic that you think that you are good enough to “be the president” of this country? If not than tell me why. Why do you think that you are uniquely qualified to run this country and be a world leader?
How do you get the border secure as we have not managed to do it in at least 30 years!
How do you get the Mexican Government to work with us on securing the border and stop the flow of people from their country into the US?
Currently the US has made an industry out of Incarceration? What do you do to turn that around?
Media, why….why are you so terribly biased. Who is pulling your strings? What happened to journalistic integrity where you simply and objectively report the news, instead of creating a narrative? Is getting the first question or interview from the president worth your integrity? I understand ratings but clearly you can see that if ratings are your reason, FOX has you beat hands down!
These are just a scant few questions that I would like to see asked of the presidential want to bees, as well as the media.
TheTimeDok 
You must be logged in to post a comment.